by Ben Dwyer CPS Supermarket is an interchange category used to determine the fee for Visa cards used at grocery stores when the card is present and a customer’s signature is obtained.
CPS Supermarket is the first part of several interchange categories that determine the fees a supermarket will pay for accepting debit or prepaid cards. There are CPS Supermarket categories for in-person debit and prepaid card transactions. There are no “card not present” categories. Additionally, there are no CPS supermarket categories for credit cards. In the past, Visa has had such categories, but as of 2023, they are no longer part of the published Visa interchange. Instead, Visa does credit interchange for supermarkets on a tiered structure.
Let’s take a look at the eligibility requirements for the categories and what you can expect to pay if you’re running a supermarket.
- CPS Supermarket Interchange Rates
- CPS Supermarket Criteria
- Debit and Regulated Debit
- CPS Supermarket on Statements
CPS Supermarket Interchange Rates
There are different rates and fees depending on whether the customer uses a debit card or a prepaid card.
| Volume Rate | Per-Transaction Fee | |
| CPS Supermarket Debit | 0% | $0.30 |
| CPS Supermarket Debit Reg | 0.05% | $0.22 |
| CPS Supermarket Prepaid* | 1.15% | $0.15 |
*This category is capped at $0.35.
These rates come directly from Visa’s published interchange schedule. However, rates are subject to change at Visa’s discretion.
Keep in mind that these are not the only rates that can apply to supermarkets. If you don’t meet requirements for one of the above categories, your transaction can “downgrade” to a more expensive category.
Check out our article on interchange rates and fees for more information.
CPS Supermarket Criteria
There are several eligibility requirements to receive CPS Supermarket interchange rates. Most criteria apply across all categories but card type and authentication method are specific to individual categories.
First, the criteria that applies to all CPS Supermarket categories.
Eligible Business Type (Supermarket)
This one is obvious. In order to be eligible for supermarket interchange rates, your business has to be, well, a supermarket. That is determined by your merchant category code (MCC) not by whether you personally call your business a supermarket. The eligible MCC is 5411 – Supermarkets.
If you run a supermarket that doesn’t receive supermarket interchange rates, you’ll need to check with your processor about your MCC or other factors.
Specific Cards
These rates only apply to debit and prepaid Visa cards. They do not apply to credit cards (including rewards cards) nor to corporate, purchasing, or government cards.
Card Present
The transaction must be run through a credit card machine. That can include swiped magstripe payments, dipped chip card payments, or tapped contactless payments. Any other method of acceptance, including hand-keying card details, is not a card-present transaction.
Settlement Time
The transaction must be settled within 24 hours of the authorization. For most businesses, batching once per day makes sense. (In fact, many credit card machines and POS systems will allow you to set automatic batching.) However, if you choose to manually batch transactions for settlement, you’ll need to make sure you’re doing so at the correct intervals to ensure transactions are settled within 24 hours.
Otherwise the transaction will “downgrade” to a more expensive interchange category.
In addition to the transaction and volume criteria, the supermarket will need to have fewer than 0.20% disputes and be PCI compliant.
Debit and Regulated Debit
To qualify for either of the CPS Supermarket Debit categories, the card needs to be a Visa debit card that the cardholder authorizes by signature. Debit cards authorized with a PIN will not qualify for these rates. Instead, those transactions will be charged according to the PIN debit network fees.
Additionally, the authorization amount and settlement amounts much match.
Beyond that, the difference between the two categories is whether the transaction occurs with a regulated or an unregulated debit card.
A “regulated” debit card is a card issued by a bank that has $10 billion or more in assets. Regulated debit card fees are capped at the interchange level. Criteria for qualifying is the same between the two categories with the exception of whether the card is regulated or unregulated.
CPS Supermarket on Statements
On monthly credit card processing statements, you may see CPS Supermarket listed with one of its abbreviations or aliases.
Those include:
- VI SUPRMKT (CPS Supermarket)
- SM CHK D (CPS Supermarket Debit)
- SPMKT D R (CPS Supermarket Debit Regulated)
- SPMKT PP (CPS Supermarket Prepaid)
You may also see SPMKTMAXPP if you hit the cap on prepaid debit interchange.
