MERCHANT PROCESSING
Government Program
NAA’s government credit card processing program tier structure is tailored to government entities’ needs. With NAA’s government program, government and recreation organizations can save significant amounts of money on processing fees and use it to be of benefit to the community instead.

Since 2009 North American Acquiring government credit card processing program has saved hundreds of municipalities across the country from high processing rates.
Discounted government pricing with the lowest rates in the industry
Integration with your organization’s exisiting software
PCI compliance
POS and gateway based EMV technology
Simple integration with on-staff development team
No personal information / guarantee for qualified government organizations
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Payment Processing Solutions for Government Entities
Instead of Hiding the Fees You Are Paying, We Help You Understand Them
With over 15 years experience with government merchant processing, we know how to properly implement Visa and MasterCard’s government program. We handle all the required paperwork and you can qualify for savings in excess of 30%. We have been serving hundreds of park districts just like yours since 2009.
THE GOVERNMENT PROGRAM
Specific Pricing Structure for Government Entities
This overview is designed to give you a look at the inner workings of the merchant processing industry, and more importantly a look at how our industry and yours intertwine. On this page we have compiled a description of the card associations government program, its respective qualifications, how industry profitability works, and even an updated card association interchange pricing category list.
The risk factor
Visa and MasterCard respectively instituted the program to be meant for the benefit of public entities in the United States, which by card association standards, are very low risk. Because government entities rarely see charge backs or fraud, the issuing banks have agreed to accept a smaller %. (see chart below) This pricing is restricted to the following ‘low’ risk entities; utilities, insurance, cable companies, telecommunications, government entities and schools.
Government Interchange Rates
The government interchange rates for Visa are 1.43% for credit and 0.80% for debit; while MasterCard’s rates are 1.45% and 0.80% for debit. These rates are good regardless of how the transaction is processed; swiped or keyed card present or not.
Conversely, the standard retail program, which 99% of American merchants currently utilize, including most public entities in the United States offers the following rates; Visa—1.54% for credit swiped and 1.85% keyed; debit is 1.03% swiped and 1.60% keyed. MasterCard—1.58% for credit swiped and 1.89% keyed; debit is 1.05% swiped and 1.64% keyed. See graph below for visualization of Visa rates, government vs. retail.
Note the difference in processor cost between government interchange and standard retail. Even with a higher profit margin, this program still saves public entities a substantial amount of money.

Special Industry Codes
Each card association has their own unique government program and is restricted to specific Special Industry Codes (SIC). In order for a government entity to qualify for these reduced rates, we at North American Acquiring work diligently to submit the appropriate forms to each card association to ensure you get the lowest possible rate for each individual transaction.
Savings Amount
All qualifying public entity merchants are eligible for these special interchange rates where the cost of accepting hand-keyed recurring credit cards will be as low as if they were card present transactions. By simply implementing the government rate program, public entities can expect to save a minimum of 28%. In addition, we at North American Acquiring also work on half the profit margin that most banks take in; it isn’t uncommon after a rate review for us to find that we can save some of your potential clients upwards of 50% off of their total processing bill. Pie chart below illustrates the afore mentioned—
By simply implementing the government rate program, public entities can expect to save a minimum of 28%.

Conclusion
At the present time, the majority of government entities are priced as retail accounts and are experiencing mid or non qualified keyed-in discount rates. Because of the government rate programs that are now available, the average cost incentive for customers that fall into this category is more than 50 basis points below that of keyed-entered retail. The result is a large opportunity for savings for these merchant types. The critical factor for the approved qualification and pricing is that the processor makes certain that the merchant has submitted the proper paperwork and is set up and priced correctly according to the specific Interchange program.
We understand Your Industry
When completed properly, the keyed-in qualified sales for the emerging markets categories will receive the qualified rate. This enables all government entities to effectively pay swiped rates all the time and save thousands of dollars per month in unnecessary expense. We know how to implement this program effectively. Large processing entities such as Fifth Third or Chase Manhattan deal with hundreds of thousands of customers from every category. Their merchant processing departments are streamlined to be cost effective for standard retail processing. Occasionally they will adopt a more in depth understanding of some set industry types. But to do the leg work needed for proper government interchange implementation on each occasion never proves cost effective. We do what they can’t because we have taken the time to build a company around the needs of your industry.
In a nutshell
We could easily save you 50% off of your processing bill without changing your current software package!
NORTH AMERICAN ACQUIRING ADVANTAGE
We Make the Transition Simple
We have the unique tools and extensive knowledge required to pair you properly with over 30 Gateways, 4 processing platforms and countless software options. Whether your processing with a computer based virtual terminal, physical terminal or both; we will work directly with your provider to ensure everything runs smoothly.
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