Level 3 Data

Enhanced transaction information required to qualify for the lowest available B2B and government purchasing card interchange rates, including detailed line-item details such as product descriptions, quantities, unit costs, tax amounts, and freight charges.

Level 3 data represents the most detailed level of transaction information that can be submitted with a credit card payment. While Level 2 data includes summary information like tax amount and customer code, Level 3 data provides complete line-item detail for each product or service in the transaction.

Required Level 3 data fields typically include transaction-level information (purchase order number, tax amount and identifier, freight/shipping amount, duty amount, destination postal code) and line-item data (product/service description, commodity code, quantity, unit of measure, unit cost, discount per line item, and extended item amount).

Commercial, corporate, and government purchasing cards have significantly higher standard interchange rates than consumer cards. However, when complete Level 3 data is submitted, these transactions can qualify for substantially reduced interchange categories. For businesses that regularly process B2B or government transactions—such as distributors, wholesalers, government contractors, and B2B service providers—implementing Level 3 data processing requires that the payment gateway and processor support Level 3 data transmission, the business's systems capture the required data fields, and data is transmitted at the time of authorization with all required fields populated accurately.

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Related Terms

3D Secure

An authentication protocol for online card transactions that adds an additional verification layer between the cardholder and issuing bank, shifting fraud liability from merchants to card issuers when properly implemented.

ACH Payment

Automated Clearing House payment is an electronic bank-to-bank payment method that transfers funds directly between bank accounts through the ACH network, typically used for direct deposits, bill payments, and recurring transactions.

Acquirer

A financial institution that processes credit card payments on behalf of merchants, maintains merchant accounts, and facilitates the settlement of funds from card-issuing banks to merchant bank accounts.

Address Verification Service (AVS)

A fraud prevention tool that compares the numeric portions of a billing address provided during a transaction against the address registered with the card-issuing bank, returning match result codes to help merchants assess transaction risk.

Aggregator

A payment service provider that enables multiple merchants to process card transactions under a single master merchant account rather than each merchant having their own dedicated merchant account, common with services like Square, Stripe, and PayPal.