What is EIRF? Electronic Interchange Reimbursement Fee

EIRF – Electronic Interchange Reimbursement Fee – A Visa only Interchange Rate

EIRF – Electronic Interchange Reimbursement Fee, is a common, avoidable surcharge. Not all EIRFs can be avoided, but there are ways to minimize these costly charges. EIRF is actually an interchange surcharge that Visa adds for certain downgraded transactions. EIRF increases your discount rate between .45% and .76%, with the exact amount depending on your merchant type (e.g. restaurant, retail, lodging, etc).

EIRF – Electronic Interchange Reimbursement Fee, will be on your statement if you have Interchange Pricing. If you are on tiered pricing (Qualified, Mid Qualified and Non Qualified), it will be masked as non-qualifying.

With these four simple tips, you can avoid costly EIRF – Electronic Interchange Reimbursement Fee, downgrades by:

For commercial cards (corporate, business and purchase cards) you should always entered the sales tax as a separate field, and for MasterCard the sales tax and customer code.
Settling your batches nightly. If you take more than 48 hours to settle a transaction, it will default to EIRF.
Getting all the necessary AVS information. In e-commerce MOTO (Mail Order/Telephone Order) environments, it is vital to get all the required address verification and CVV2 codes and to ensure they are entered into your system correctly. Missing information results in EIRF charges. In a swiped environment, keying in the card and forcing its verification will penalize the merchant with EIRF.
Ensuring your final settled amount matches the authorization. If your original authorization and the final charge amount are not equal, the transactions being downgraded to EIRF. It’s recommended that merchants request a new authorization code if the dollar amount changes. For merchants that accept tips or process incremental authorizations, such as Food and Beverage, Restaurants or Hospitality, they are generally exempted from this requirement.
Implementing these four tips will help your organization avoid the costliest of Visa’s downgrades. The tips will also prevent many Standard Electronic Interchange Reimbursement Fee (SEIRF) interchange downgrades, which are charged by both MasterCard and Visa, and can add as much as 3% to your rate. We don’t profit from your downgrades nor do we have no financial ties to banks, so we only succeed when you do.

EIRF fees

Credit: 2.30% + $0.10
Debit: 1.75% + $0.20
Prepaid: 1.80% + $0.20

Retail EIRF – Electronic Interchange Reimbursement Fee

• Transaction is hand-keyed without AVS
• Batch was not closed until 72 hours after authorization
• Transactions approved via voice authorization and/or force
• Commercial card used without sales tax and customer card being entered
• Cardholder uses a World Elite, World Business, or World Elite Business Card

Restaurant EIRF – Electronic Interchange Reimbursement Fee

• Transaction is hand-keyed without AVS
• Batch was not closed until 72 hours after authorization
• Transactions approved via voice authorization and/or force
• Business/Corporate/Purchasing Card transaction
• Cardholder uses a World Elite, World Business, or World Elite Business Card

MOTO (Mail Order/Telephone Order) eCommerce EIRF – Electronic Interchange Reimbursement Fee

• Transaction is hand-keyed without AVS
• Batch not closed daily
• Transactions approved via voice authorization and/or force
• Commercial card used without sales tax and customer code being entered
• Cardholder uses a World Elite, World Business, or World Elite Business Card

Supermarkets EIRF – Electronic Interchange Reimbursement Fee

• Transaction is hand-keyed without AVS
• Batch was not closed until 72 hours after authorization
• Transactions approved via voice authorization and/or force
• Commercial card used without sales tax and customer card being entered
• Cardholder uses a World Elite, World Business, or World Elite Business Card

Lodging EIRF – Electronic Interchange Reimbursement Fee

• Check-in/out dates are missing
• Folio number is missing
• Settled amount is more than 15% of the authorization amount
• Settled more than 48 hours following Check-out (transaction) date
• Business/Corporate/Purchasing Card accepted
• Transaction approved via voice authorization
• Cardholder uses a World Elite, World Business, or World Elite Business Card

 If you have any other questions please email us at support@hippocharging.com