by Ben Dwyer Visa’s CPS Retail 2 is an interchange category used to calculate interchange fees for transactions involving a credit card for certain business types, defined by Merchant Category Codes.
Note: As of summer 2023, the Retail 2 Card Present interchange category is no longer listed in Visa’s published interchange table. We’re leaving this article here for historical purposes, but it will not longer be updated, as Visa is not using the Retail 2 Card Present category anymore. At this time, Retail 2 Card Not Present is still in use for debit and prepaid cards only.
Interchange rate & fee: 1.43% + $0.05
Also known as:
RTL2 CP
CPS Retail 2 is a Visa interchange category that is used to calculate interchange fees for transactions involving a credit card for certain business types, defined by Merchant Category Codes below.
Qualification criteria:
The CPS Retail 2 interchange category will apply under the following conditions:
- Authorization is obtained on the same day as the transaction
- The transaction meets enhanced data requirements
- The transaction meets requirements for one of the following CPS programs: Retail, Retail Key Entry, Card Not Present, E-Commerce Basic, or E-Commerce Preferred
- The transaction is settled within 3 days (excluding Sundays and holidays) for mail, phone, and face to face transactions. (All other transactions must be settled within 2 days excluding Sundays and holiday.)
- The business is classed with a valid Merchant Category Code (MCC)
Eligible Merchant Category Codes:
The CPS Retail 2 interchange category applies to the following merchant category codes (MCCs):
- 9211 (Court Costs)
- 9222 (Fines – Gov’t)
- 9399 (Gov’t Services)
- 8211 (Elementary/Secondary Schools)
- 8220 (Colleges/Universities)
- 8299 (Education Services)
- 5960 (Direct Marketing – Insurance Services)
- 5968 (Direct Marketing – Subscriptions)
- 5983 (Fuel Dealers)
- 6300 (Insurance Underwriting)
- 4899 (Cable/Satellite and other Pay TV & Radio (debit & prepaid only)
- 8351 (Child Care)
- 8398 (Charities – debit & prepaid only)
- 7800 (Government Owned Lotteries)
Typical bundled qualification:
Although qualifications for transactions vary, many processors class the CPS Retail interchange category as “qualified” for transactions processed by card-present and card-not-present businesses.
