Level 2 and Level 3 data
Business, corporate, and purchasing cards can qualify for lower interchange when extra purchase detail is sent with the transaction. If your system does not send it, you pay the higher rate.
Contractors and B2B
Credit card processing for contractors.
You get paid away from a counter, often by a business card, often in stages. That combination has one cost lever in it that almost nobody talks about.
No obligation. I follow up personally.
What matters for contractors
The saving most contractors are not told about.
The customer is not standing in front of you, and the card is often a business card.
Payment without a register
Payment links, emailed invoices, and virtual terminals replace the counter. Each is priced differently and each produces a different record.
Deposits and stages
Payment on deposit, at milestone, and on completion means several transactions per job rather than one, so per-item fees matter more.
When a customer pays with a business, corporate, or purchasing card, the card brands allow that transaction to qualify for a lower interchange category if extra purchase detail is submitted along with it. Level 2 adds fields like a tax amount and a customer reference number. Level 3 adds line item detail: quantities, descriptions, unit costs.
The catch is that the data has to be captured and passed automatically by your invoicing or payment system. If it is not, the transaction settles at the standard commercial rate and nobody tells you. For a business where a large share of revenue arrives on company cards, this is often the single largest avoidable cost on the account, and it is invisible on the statement because nothing is labeled as a missed opportunity.
So the first question is not what rate you are being charged. It is what share of your volume is on commercial cards, and whether your system is passing the data on those transactions. That is checkable, and it does not require changing providers to find out.
The second question is how payment reaches you. Keyed card numbers cost more than a link the customer completes themselves, and a link produces a cleaner record for reconciliation. If you are taking numbers over the phone and typing them in, there is usually a better option.
Contractors in a Central Texas market
A lot of trade and construction work around Austin is billed business to business: to general contractors, builders, and property managers. Those customers tend to pay on company cards, which is exactly the volume where Level 2 and Level 3 data matters. The more of your revenue arrives that way, the more a missing data field costs you, every month, without ever appearing on the statement.
If you work alongside a Spanish-speaking crew or office, Luis can go through all of this in Spanish.
Free fee check
Check the commercial card question first.
Find the total fees on last month's processing statement and enter it here. Luis will look at it personally and tell you, within 24 to 48 hours, whether it is fair.
- No statement upload. Two numbers are enough to start.
- A personal answer from Luis within 24 to 48 hours.
- If what you pay today is already fair, he will tell you that.
Before you compare quotes, gather these
The comparison is only honest if both sides are measured the same way.
- Last month's total fees and total card sales
- The share of payments made with business or corporate cards
- Whether your invoicing system passes Level 2 and Level 3 data
- Your average invoice and how many payments a typical job takes
- Any accounting software the payments have to reconcile against
Related reading
Common questions
Questions from owners like you.
What are Level 2 and Level 3 data?
Extra detail submitted with a transaction paid by a business, corporate, or purchasing card. Level 2 adds fields such as tax amount and a customer reference number. Level 3 adds line item detail. Providing it can qualify the transaction for a lower interchange category.
How do I know if my system is passing that data?
It is not shown as its own line on a statement, which is why it goes unnoticed. It has to be checked against how your invoicing or payment system is configured. Tell me what you use and I will look at the commercial card side with you.
Should I charge customers a fee for paying by card?
Surcharge and dual pricing programs both exist and both have rules, including rules that differ by state and by card brand. In B2B they are less common than in retail because of contract terms with commercial customers. It is worth a conversation before you implement anything.
Can I take a deposit and a final payment on the same job?
Yes. Progress billing is normal in this category. Just note that each payment carries its own per-item fee, so a job billed in four stages costs more in per-item fees than the same job billed once.
Talk to Luis
That question alone is usually worth a call.
Tell Luis what you invoice with and who pays you on company cards.