What is Level 2/Level 3 data

Let’s begin by explaining what is meant by Level 2 and Level 3 data. Both require additional information for processing credit card transactions, to help further verify the legitimacy of the card and reduce fraud risk, thereby lowering the cost of the transaction. Level 2 data includes the merchant name, transaction amount, tax amount, transaction date, customer code or PO number, and merchant zip code. By providing this information, merchants can enjoy lower interchange fees for B2B commerce– Visa and Mastercard typically offer a .50 percent lower rate than average with Level 2 data.

Level 3 data takes it one step further– both in the amount of data required to process the transaction, and the amount saved in reduced interchange fees. In addition to the Level 2 data required, Level 3 data required fields include shipping zip code, destination zip code, invoice number, order number, item product code, item commodity code, item description, item quantity, item unit of measure, item extended amount, freight amount, and duty amount. Providing Level 3 data can save a merchant up to 1 percent over standard interchange fees.

While Level 2 card acceptance can be fairly easily achieved by smaller B2B merchants, because of the depth of required information, Level 3 card acceptance is typically best suited for heavy industry B2B merchants or governmental processing.