Electronic Benefits Transfer or EBT payments are ones where a person who qualifies for government assistance through food stamps or other programs can pay for their purchases. The EBT payments will cover the cost of said items. The effort is to help the poor get the necessities they require, although there may be limits on what people can acquire through EBT payments. You can accept these payments if you hire an EBT merchant services group to help you with your needs.
There are a few rules to use when getting help with EBT payments through a credit card processing system:
- You’ll require a USDA Food and Nutrition Service or FNS permit. You can contact a credit card processing team for help with acquiring a permit. Permits are available to parties that sell staple foods in four major categories. You could also have at least half your gross retail sales coming from selling various staple foods.
- You will also need to utilize the right hardware. Your system should accept PIN debit transactions while also working with suitable encryption keys. EBT payments will go through with such transactions.
- You must also have a seven-digit FNS account number that will link to your merchant account. You can utilize any bank account as your merchant account when accepting your EBT payments.
EBT merchant services will still cost money to utilize. But the cost is still dramatically lower than you might expect, as it costs 10 cents to handle each EBT transaction. The low price is thanks to the EBT system being a government program. The card is less expensive to accept for business purposes, and the rate is the same regardless of whatever MCC code you utilize in the process.