Visa’s Fixed Acquirer Network Fee (FANF) will be passed on to merchants beginning April 1st. The calculation of this fee is extremely complex and large merchants with many locations, multiple MCCs and mix of card present and card not present sales are having a difficult time calculating the impact of this fee to their organization. Optimized Payments Consulting has introduced a free online calculator that can help merchants estimate their monthly FAN fee.
Most merchants in the U.S. are about to repay some of the savings they realized from the Durbin amendment that became effective October 2011. Starting April 2012, Visa and MasterCard are implementing new fees and increasing some interchange rates that will cost most merchants from a few dollars to a few hundred thousand dollars per month. It is important for merchants to understand their liability for these fees and seek out ways to manage the increased cost.
| Calculator to Estimate Visa's Fixed Acquirer Network Fee (FANF) Effective for activity beginning April 1, 2012, Visa is implementing a new fixed fee, called the Fixed Acquirer Network Fee (FANF), which will apply to the acceptance of all Visa-branded products. The following calculator will help merchants estimate the monthly impact of this fee to their organization. Use this calculator for each taxpayer ID (Taxpayer Identification Number or Employer Identification Number) within your organization. You will be able to e-mail the results of these calculations to yourself...just follow the directions | ||||||
Important notes to keep in mind regarding this fee:
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| Do you accept Visa cards in card present, card not present, or both environments (include fast food restaurants in card not present)? | ||||||
The most significant of all the new fees and rates changes is the introduction of Visa’s Fixed Acquirer Network Fee (FANF). Effective for activity beginning April 1, 2012, this fee will apply to the acceptance of all Visa-branded products. This fee is charged to a merchant's acquirer or credit card processor based on a merchant’s size and number of locations. Most processors have announced that they intend to pass this fee on to their merchants. The calculation of this fee is extremely complex as it is based on a number of variables, including:
- Number of taxpayer IDs
- Card present vs. card not present
- Merchant Category Codes (MCCs)
- Number of locations
- Visa gross monthly sales volume
Large merchants with many locations, multiple MCCs and mix of card present and card not present sales are having a difficult time calculating the impact of this fee to their organization.Optimized Payments Consulting has introduced a free online calculator that can help merchants estimate their monthly FAN fee. “We are offering a simple tool to help merchants estimate the impact of FANF to their bottom line,” notes Anand Goel, founder of Optimized Payments. The FANF calculator can be found at http://www.optimizedpmts.com/fanf_calculator.php
Visa is implementing this fixed fee to recoup some revenue lost from the implementation of the Durbin amendment. “Debit regulation has altered the competitive landscape,” Visa noted recently. The new fee structure aims to lower the “cost of Visa acceptance, while allowing continued investments” in the network’s development. Some analysts, that cover the Visa stock, estimate that FANF will generate $900 million in revenue per year for the company. Although Visa contends that this fee will be net neutral to their bottom line (in conjunction with some fee decreases*), it is difficult to see how. Many investors have already factored in this fee to the Visa's bottom line and have sent the stock to an all-time high.
Visa and some acquirers are offering rebates or incentives to some of the largest merchants in the U.S. to cover the cost of the FAN fee for 2012. Therefore, it is important for merchants to estimate their FANF liability and explore potential incentives with their acquirers. Mr. Goel notes, “It is uncertain, and we think unlikely, that these incentives will continue to next year.”
As businesses look to manage their operating costs in this struggling economic recovery, it is important for them to examine the cost of electronic payments. This is an area often overlooked due to its complexity, and firms either tend to overpay for this service or not take advantage of various incentives available in the marketplace. “There are so many resources on the internet, including our own freely available research at http://www.optimizedpmts.com/blog/ that there is no reason for merchants to overpay for card processing services,” explains Mr. Goel.
Optimized Payments Consulting (http://www.optimizedpmts.com) is an Atlanta, Ga.‐based consulting firm that leverages its associates' broad payment industry experience and proprietary software to help businesses reduce their payment processing costs and improve their bottom line.
*Visa is lowering the NAP fee (Network Acquirer Processing) on Signature debit and Prepaid transactions, eliminating the RIS (Risk Identification Service) Fee, reducing the Interlink switch fee, and making incentive payments to large merchants under the Visa Partner Program.
