That depends on the merchant.

If a card has a card-association logo on it, then it can be processed through interchange. And in most cases I would guess there is no difference in the processing of that transaction.

But, for example, here in LA we have this mega-shopping retail store called Costco that doesn't take MasterCard or Visa, only American Express. But, they do accept my Visa debit card. Go figure.

I'm pretty sure the are treated differently GG. If you look at Ikobo (yes I know... bad example), but they accept Visa credit cards, but not check cards. Go figure! |angry|

Again, it's up to the merchant.

Some may scrub differently based on the card type, if the processor has cutomized thier filtering based on past experience.

I don't think there is really a clear answer to this one.

Does Epoch, as a merchant, treat them differently? (and I have no hidden agenda, so don't worry about anything - LOL)

Oh I agree, there are far too many scammers. And I agree, there needs to be some protocol's in place. But we also know good cards get turned down far to often. Then again, I am not a processor, I'm sure it is a thin line.

ronnie

If the card passes AVS check, BIN check, fraud filtering, and interchange, then the approval is processed no differently.

Rand, is the situaton with CCBill not accepting Epassporte a strictly buisness situation, or is it an issue of competition? Would it help if people processing with CCBill put pressure on them to accept it?

Alex

At one point I thought there was a tentative agreement for CCBill to start taking ePassporte but I'm not certain about that. All that they would need is to have an agreement in place with ePassporte and then all sites processed by CCBill could accept ePassporte also.

Ok - in all honestly, I was just wondering why they asked if it was a credit or debit card at the local stores & whatnot :)

I've tried to use a credit card at some of the local fast food places and they say they don't take cc's just debit cards. Does it have something to do with the availability of the funds maybe? It seems like the opposite is true on the internet. Merchants prefer cc's to debit cards

from what i understand if you use your check card as a credit card (ie signing the recipt and not using a pin) then the merchant has to pay a higher processing fee and the purchase can be disputed by the customer, even if its signed for. if you use a pin then there is no doubt that the customer has used it (or at least in a dispute the merchant has an advantage) and cannot dispute the charge so the merchant is off the hook and is guranteed payment. Thats why costco will not accept debit cards as credit cards (i was a member when they changed it and had a manager explain it to me cuz i was pissed) american express isnt techinically credit like visa is cuz you cant carry a balance.

also if you use it for paying the pump when you get gas as a credit card then it just checks to see if the account is active, if you put in your pin then it actually puts a $50 hold on your account.

im no expert but this is how i understand it at least LOL

Sounds like a good explanation to me. :)

Ahhh - the PIN number - that explains it :)

SecurityMan's explanation is right on (for the retail brick-and-mortar environment).

It also makes a difference if you are getting cash back.

The debit card is a strange animal! You can still dispute transactions even with a PIN number used, but the liklihood of getting it back is very small unless you sign an Affadavit of Fraud and agree to prosecute who ever is identified as using the card (which 99.9% of the time it is the actual user). Also, a lot of places like gas stations only hold $1 as a pre-auth.

I didn't believe there was a difference in processing prices for debit vs. credit.