Visa Reaches Out for Small-Ticket Transactions

San Francisco, Visa USA unveiled a strategy to accelerate Visa card acceptance and consumer usage at traditionally cash-heavy, smaller-ticket businesses. The plan involves lower transaction fees for some retailers.

Visa will allow merchants to forgo obtaining a cardholder's signature on a receipt for authorized transactions less than $25 to speed up Visa card payments at checkout. This signature exception will be available in several merchant segments where fraud has been historically low, such as drug stores, parking lots and movie theaters, among others.

Visa will enhance the financial incentive for acquirers in several small-ticket segments by reducing the interchange reimbursement fee in those segments on Visa consumer check card transactions of $15 or less. Retailers in the program will pay 1.65% plus 4? per credit-card transaction, Reuters reported. The debit-card fee will fall to 1.55% from 1.6%. Interchange fees on all U.S. purchases average about 1.56%, according to a Federal Reserve study issued in May, or about 1.75%, according to a study from Morgan Stanley.