Only if you want to be subject to the penalties that BrianC listed above.

I stumbled upon this post and now I am concerned as the original poster decribes our same situation. Several years ago, we did not renew our contract for our cash advance terminals and therefore, do not offer any cash advance service within the bank. The customer/non-customer is free to use our ATM. We use a different company to provide our VISA debit cards. I currently do not have access to that contract, but am I correct to assume we are in violation of VISA rules??

Brian,
What does the section that is underlined really mean?


MasterCard Rules 5.11.2 Charges to Cardholders

A Merchant must not directly or indirectly require any Cardholder to pay a surcharge or any part of any Merchant discount or any contemporaneous finance charge in connection with a Transaction. A Merchant may provide a discount to its customers for cash payments. A Merchant is permitted to charge a fee (such as a bona fide commission, postage, expedited service or convenience fees, and the like) if the fee is imposed on all like transactions regardless of the form of payment used, or as the Corporation has expressly permitted in writing.

@ alwayssmiling - I can't say with 100% certainty that you are in violation as I don't know how your third party has sponsored you into VISA as an issuer. Chances are as a VISA issuer, yes you are obligated to offer cash advances.

@Lucky - for institutions participating as an acquirer to accept loan payments via debit card they may be permitted to charge a fee for processing the payment. However, the fee must be the same whether it is paid via MasterCard, VISA, Remotely Created Check, ACH, etc. You cannot offer to accept payments via ACH for free and then charge if the payment is made via debit card.

You cannot charge a fee for cash advances.

Thanks Brian!

VISA Issuers should refer to VISA Operating Rules

Each Member, excluding one participating only in the Visa Electron or Plus programs, must make Manual Cash Disbursements to other Issuers' Visa Cardholders from all of its Branches in its Country of Domicile. This includes, but is not limited to, unembossed Visa Cards, and Visa Cards with a generic dentifier or no Cardholder name. This requirement is limited only by applicable law and the Issuer's Cash Disbursement policy.

The last sentence indicates "issuer's cash disbursement policy". Does this mean that we can put a limit on the amount of the cash advance (whether it's for a customer or non-customer)? Also, does anyone know what section of the VISA operating guidelines I can find the above reference?

Resurrecting an old thread...

We are a Mastercard issuer and provide cash advances to all cardholders with proper ID whether customer or not. We do not charge a fee. My questions:

1. Can we refuse cash advances to Visa cardholders since we issue Mastercards?

2. Can we refuse cash advances for cards issued without an embossed name?

3. Can we establish a cash advance daily/dollar/other limit as long as it is applied to all cardholders whether customer or not?

Our competing bank has quit offering cash advances. We have seen a rise in activity.

We have just researched this entire top due to a similar scenario.

1. No. If you have a visa/mc bin, you must accept visa/mc.
2. No. You can implement extra security steps to ensure proper id for non-embossed cards.
3. You can establish a $5,000 daily limit per cardholder per card, but if you do it applies to customers and non customers.

We have several competing banks that have put into place procedures that are not compliant and are driving the non customer cash advance business to our locations.

You can report them to visa/mc and they will give them a call and explain to them their contract requirements.

We are currently updating our procedures also and I have a couple of questions. #1 above states "if you have a visa/mc bin, you must accept visa/mc". If we only issue M/C debit cards then do we still have to accept Visa for non-customers?

Also - we take credit card applications for customers. We send the application into the CC company for approval and they issue the card. The credit card has our name on it but we do not service the card in any way. Cards issued could be Visa, M/C and American Express. Would the same rule apply in this situation? Do we need to then service any customer or non-customer when it comes to cash advances?

Thanks!

You will need to refer back to your contract. We issue MasterCard credit cards through a third party and we issue Visa debit cards. We have a Visa bin and our contract states we must offer to visa/mastercard customers.

For a period of time, due to losses, we stopped issuing cash advances to non customers. We were called by Visa and referred back to our contract and told we must immediately begin offering cash advances to non customers.