Cash Discount Laws

Federal Law

By uniformly assessing a set customer service fee across all products and payment types, merchants utilizing the PaymentUSA Freedom Cash Discount program meet the standard regulations set forth by all major card service providers, state law and federal law. As part of our regular standard list product pricing a small service fee (much like an automatic service gratuity applied in some dining locations) is assessed on ALL sales regardless of how payment is made including checks, cash, credit-debit cards, gift cards, etc.

As stated in the Durbin Amendment (part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law) businesses are permitted to offer a discount to customers as an incentive and to encourage customers to pay by alternative methods other than a credit/debit cards including either checks or cash in order to automatically receive a discount which is applied at the time of sale.

No discrepancies are made whether a PIN was entered or not. Under the Durbin Amendment there is no distinction between using a PIN or not and if the card is a bank debit card it is always considered a debit transaction – with or without a PIN number and never would such a transaction be considered a credit sale.

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Credit Card Industry

As of January 27, 2013 several Card industry changes went into effect with regards to the credit card company’s federal class action litigation settlement. The settlement requires Visa and MasterCard to change some rules for merchants who accept their cards, including allowing merchants to “offer discounts to customers who pay with payment forms less expensive than Bank Debit cards”.

Our Exclusive U.S. Patents

PaymentUSA Freedom utilizes patented technology that no other processor has.  All the compliance and card industry standards have been met, and all terminals house this exclusive patented technology straight out of the Box.  Rest assured, your business is in professional hands.

Patent Number:
US 8,478,689

Patent Number:
US 8,131,619 B1

Patent Number:
US 8,423,439

Compliance Requirements 

  • Clear and conspicuous signage is required by law to be displayed at the business entry point and at the point-of-sale to easily and accurately explain the discount program payment options – if a customer “chooses to pay with cash or check the service charge is discounted”.
  • The customer service fee or discounted amount must be present on any generated receipts from the transaction. Payment USA Freedom software provides customer receipts that automatically outline everything that is necessary:

WITH PAYMENT USA FREEDOM:

  • Base cost is clearly defined
  • Cash discount is clearly displayed 
  • Total Sale is clearly itemized for customer

Compliance Built In

PaymentUSA Freedom technology automatically applies the fee on the receipt. Even if you accept tips at your place of business, our Cash Discount solution has you covered end to end.