Card Briefs: 30,000 More Terminals For Visa Purchase Cards

Paymentech Inc. has converted credit card acceptance terminals for 30,000 merchants so they can accept Visa U.S.A. Purchasing cards, the companies announced.

According to Visa, this was one of the largest merchant terminal conversion efforts for its commercial purchasing cards. Visa Purchasing cards convey more information about transactions than personal-use credit cards, and merchant terminals must be retrofitted to handle the extra data.

The additional information-known as Level II transaction data-helps companies keep track of business expenses. It includes information companies need to comply with sales and use tax reporting and to streamline expense reconciliation.

"To support the needs of their commercial customers, merchants are requesting the capability to accept purchasing cards, so we are undertaking this conversion to meet their demands," said Mary Dees, Paymentech's group executive for third-party processing.

Paymentech, a unit of Banc One Corp., has "an interest in expanding the acceptance base to increase the utility of purchasing cards," Ms. Dees said.

James Baumgartner, president of Paymentech's commercial card unit, said the conversion effort "complements our commercial card issuing business. Acceptance is critical to our role in acquiring data and translating it into information for our customers' benefit."

Cory Gaines, vice president of commercial card acceptance at Visa U.S.A., said, "Paymentech's upgrade significantly expands acceptance locations for the Visa Purchasing card. We're committed to supporting business suppliers to accept Visa cards and to pass the maximum amount of transaction information wherever possible."