Mike Lawlor, senior vice president of sales for USA Technologies Inc., clarified the company’s announcement that it will not be increasing its rates on debit and credit card transactions in the foreseeable future.
As previously announced, USA Technologies Inc. will continue to accept Visa-branded debit and pre-paid cards in addition to all major credit cards, including Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express, at its current processing rates.
He said a recent agreement with Visa will allow USA Tech’s card processing rate to remain steady for at least the next year. Lawlor noted that Visa debit cards account for roughly 80 percent of all debit card transactions within USA Tech’s mix of card usage. As for MasterCard debit card processing rates, they have also not changed, until such time that MasterCard debit cards are no longer accepted by USA Tech.
Editor’s Insight: USA Technologies Inc.’s success in securing an agreement with Visa for its debit interchange rate bodes well for cashless vending since, as Mike Lawlor points out, a large portion of cashless vending purchases are Visa debit card purchases.
The vending industry is not out of the woods yet as far as other debit card purchases are concerned. The National Automatic Merchandising Association and Bank of America Merchant Services are working hard with the major credit card associations to get relief from high interchange fees on small ticket transactions. 11-09-11
