GSA SmartPay and Level-3 Line Item Detail
Sending Level III Line Item Detail can save a significant amount vs. processing the transaction without passing line item detail.
• Example #1, Visa Interchange Exercise:
Cost for a $5000 Visa transaction without Level 3 Data: $139 or 2.78%
Cost for a $5000 Visa transaction with Level 3 Data: $99 or 1.98%
Cost for a $3000 Visa transaction without Level 3 Data: $99 or 3.30%
Cost for a $3000 Visa transaction with Level 3 Data: $75 or 2.50%
• Example #2, MasterCard Interchange Exercise:
Cost for a $5000 MasterCard transaction without Level 3 Data: $147.50, or 2.95%
Cost for a $5000 MasterCard transaction with Level 3 Data: $102.50, or 2.05%
Cost for a $3000 MasterCard transaction without Level 3 Data: $88.60, or 2.95%
Cost for a $3000 MasterCard transaction with Level 3 Data: 77.58%, or 2.58%
Including level 3 line item detail allows you to capture additional revenue that is and otherwise go to the card issuing bank. About 75% of the fees you and every business pay
goes to the card issuer and is called Interchange.
• Level-3 or Line Item detail defies a sale (what is being purchased) How its taking place, the parties involved, combines this with other payment details and includes it in the
transaction to the the processor.
Additional savings can be achieved on “Large Ticket” government transactions. (Large Ticket Advantage Program)
This is based on the card issuing banks bin number, card indicators and the transaction size and has qualifying cards less than a half of a percent.
• Bank Identification Number or “BIN”: industry term used to describe the first four digits (or “prefix”) in
the card number.
When extended to six digits, it represents the bank that issued the card and the
program type. In the GSA SmartPay® environment, we have 3 issuing banks that service the government
BIN’s (Citibank, JPMorgan Chase and US Bank). This is also known as the Issuer Identification
Number (IIN) under the existing ISO/IEC 7812
• BIN Recognition: by recognizing the BIN you will be able to “outsort” the government charge card
transactions by using the built-in logic of your POS system in order to apply the price discounts
established in your GSA Schedule agreement
• POS Systems: most proprietary and complex POS Systems (PC or Cash-register based) have BIN
recognition capabilities. The BIN numbers can be easily programmed for instant identification
• BIN Recognition is commonly used today in order to identify check cards (“signature debit” vs. PINBased
debit)
• Merchants using credit card terminals and some gateways are unable to support level 3 line item detail (enhanced data). For example, older model
terminals may not have enough memory space to support the additional data elements required for
sending level 3 transaction information.
The GSA SmartPay® Program BIN’s are:
- Visa®: 4614, 4716 and 4486
- MasterCard® 5565 and 5568