MasterCard

MasterCard is one of world’s best known online payment methods and dominant credit card brands. MasterCard is truly a global payment brand, supporting 150 currencies with over 35 million acceptance locations (point-of-sale and online) in over 210 countries.

 

INTRODUCTION

 

MasterCard is a card payment method that can used for purchases at point-of-sale and online. Upon checkout in an online store, the consumer selects the MasterCard button or logo, enters their card number, expiry date and CVC2 (security code at the back of the card) and completes payment. Merchants receive instant confirmation of payment. MasterCard, similar to other credit cards used online, are known to be eligible for chargebacks: the cardholder reclaiming their money due to fraud or disputes. Merchants willing to accept MasterCard online can protect their card sales by using MasterCard SecureCode, a service that verifies the genuine cardholder at the moment of purchase. Online merchants are able to accept MasterCard payments either via direct solutions like PayPal and Click-and-Buy, or via MasterCard Payment Gateways and Payment Service Providers (see below). MasterCard credit card transactions are normally charged a commission of 1-3% per transaction (differs per merchant/country).

astercard has a special rate for card-not-present/e-commerce transactions. These are riskier transactions because of the risk of fraud, so they have a higher interchange rate. However, you can lower this rate by utilizing Mastercard’s SecureCode feature with the Universal Cardholder Authorization Field (UCAF). Mastercard SecureCode is called such because it requires the cardholder to enter a special code in order to make the purchase, thereby lowering the risk of credit card fraud.

As a result of lowering the risk of fraud, UCAF qualifies for a lower interchange rate than other card-not-present or e-commerce transactions. Further, there are two separate UCAF categories: “Full UCAF” and “Merchant UCAF.” Full UCAF interchange rates apply when both the merchant and the cardholder have SecureCode enabled, and Merchant UCAF interchange rates apply when only the merchant uses SecureCode.

As of April 12, 2019, the interchange rates for full UCAF consumer credit cards (dependent upon what type of card is used) are:

  • Core: 1.78% + $0.10
  • Enhanced Value: 1.93% + $0.10
  • World: 1.97% + $0.10
  • World High Value: 2.40% + $0.10
  • World Elite: 2.40% + $0.10

For merchant UCAF, the interchange rates are:

  • Core: 1.68% + $0.10
  • Enhanced Value: 1.83% + $0.10
  • World: 1.87% + $0.10
  • World High Value: 2.30% + $0.10
  • World Elite: 2.30% + $0.10

Debit and prepaid cards also have different rates for full UCAF and merchant UCAF. They are:

  • Unregulated debit, full UCAF: 1.25% + $0.15
  • Prepaid, full UCAF: 1.25% + $0.15
  • Unregulated debit, merchant UCAF: 1.15% + $0.15
  • Prepaid, merchant UCAF: 1.15% + $0.15

Compare the core credit card merchant UCAF rate to a core credit card key-entered transaction: the merchant UCAF rate is 1.68% + $0.10 while the key-entered transaction is 1.89% + $0.10!