This is the latest installment in The Official Merchant Services Blog’s Knowledge Base effort. Well we want to make the payment processing industry’s terms and buzzwords clear. We want to remove any and all confusion merchants might have about how the industry works. Host Merchant Services promises: the company delivers personal service and clarity. So we’re going to take some time to explain how everything works.
This ongoing series is where we define industry related terms and slowly build up a knowledge base and as we get more and more of these completed, we’ll collect them in our resource archive for quick and easy access.
Today’s terms are Level I, Level II and Level III Data.These terms are all related to Purchasing Card Data. There are different levels of data in the merchant account business. This three level system decides whether or not a transaction is qualified. When changes are implemented in the credit card processing industry, there are also changes in the regulations on how this data is processed, and it’s a good idea to know the difference between the various levels when thinking about data security and PCI Compliance.
Level I Data
Level I card data is typically associated with consumer transactions and limited purchase data returned to the cardholder. Level I purchasing card data includes the same information captured during a traditional credit card purchase transaction. This includes: total purchase amount, date, merchant category code and supplier/retailer name.
Level II Data
Level II purchasing card data includes the same information captured at Level I, plus the following: sales tax amount, customer’s accounting code, merchant’s tax ID number, applicable minority – and women-owned business status and sales outlet ZIP code. Level-2 data elements benefit the corporate/government/industrial buyer and can often be transmitted via a standard credit card point of sale terminal due to their restricted capabilities.
Level III Data
Level III purchasing card data includes the same information captured at Levels I and II, plus the following: quantities, product codes, product descriptions, ship to ZIP, freight amount, duty amount, order/ticket number, unit of measure, extended item amount, discount indicator, discount amount, net/gross indicator, tax rate applied, tax type applied, debit or credit indicator and alternate tax identifier. Level III is comprehensive line item detail. This data is equivalent to the information found on an itemized invoice, requires greater system capability which is provided through 3Delta Systems’ payment applications.