Quantum’s Cash Discount Program allows you as a merchant to offset most of your merchant services fees.

It is a method of implementing a service fee to all customers, while providing a discount to those

who pay with cash.

Your posted prices for items will be the cash discount prices. Any customer paying with a card will

have a small service fee added to all of their transactions. This offsets your processing fees!

There are no extra fees for you as a merchant! In fact, you will be provided with tremendous

savings. Merchants pay a fee of $19.95 per month for your processing account. Your savings are

easy to calculate; if you paid $650 last month you will save up to $635 each month!

A surcharge is when the merchant increases the price for card purchases. A cash discount is when a

merchant provides a lower cost for cash prices, with the posted prices being cash. Although

seemingly similar, there is one major difference, surcharging can only be applied to credit cards and

no other forms of payment like debit or gift cards. The cash discount program allows for an increase

on any type of payment that is not cash.

The card associations have strict guidelines on how a cash discount program must be implemented.

1) Correct signage must be posted 2) The amount of the added service fee must be displayed on the

receipt and 3) A verbal offering of the cash discount to your customers must be made.

In order to be compliant, merchants with a Cash Discount Program need to display the Base Amount of the transaction, the Cash Discount, and the Total Cost of the transaction on the customers’ receipt. Without the proprietary technology programmed into your terminals, you would have to manually apply the service fee. But if a fee is incorrectly applied to a transaction, the additional fee charged to customers would be labeled as a Surcharge which is prohibited in 10 states (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma, and Texas). If the fee is not a Cash Discount and is deemed as a Surcharge, even if allowed in your state, has strict requirements on the amount of the Surcharge. As a merchant, you must register with Visa/MasterCard in order to legally apply the surcharge. A Cash Discount Program has no necessary registration.

While many processors may offer a Cash Discount program, not all of them offer and utilize the compliant technology that is compatible with your terminals. A major difference we have seen while looking at the providers across the industry is the Cash Discount line item. Many providers offer a program without the Cash Discount line item showing on the receipt. It is important that when looking at processors, they are offering you a compliant program with capable technology to display the required line items on the receipt.

To be implemented correctly, you don’t need to change any of your prices. Quantum provides the required simple signage to be posted to make all customers aware of the 3.90% service charge to customers. (Please note 3.9% is the average charge, but we have several options available). Our technology

will add the required line item showing the service charge on the customers’ receipt.

With increasing costs for using an ATM, most customers will see a lower fee paying the small added

fee versus the cost of an ATM fee. This combined with the convenience of using a credit card and

fewer people carrying cash makes for a great solution to your customers!

No problem, we still have you covered! If the program isn’t for you, we will gladly change your

account to a traditional merchant services account within the first 90 days. With Quantum’s low and

competitive pricing, you will still be saving money!