If your business accepts commercial, corporate, or purchasing cards, you may be paying more in interchange fees than necessary. Card networks like Visa and Mastercard offer reduced interchange rates when transactions include detailed purchase data — known as Level 2 and Level 3 (L2/L3) data. Without this data, transactions default to higher standard interchange rates, even when the card itself qualifies for a discount.

Tesorio Pay automatically submits Level 2 and Level 3 data on every eligible transaction, helping you qualify for the lowest available interchange rates, assuming the data is present. If it’s not, Tesorio will work with your team to capture the correct data to qualify your payments for the lowest possible interchange.

This article explains what L2/L3 data is, why it matters for B2B payments, and how Tesorio Pay handles it.

When a card payment is processed, interchange fees are determined by a combination of factors: the card type, the transaction processing method, and the amount of purchase detail included. Card networks define three tiers of transaction data:

Level 1 is the standard data included in every card transaction — the merchant name, transaction amount, and date. This is what a typical consumer purchase includes, and it qualifies for standard interchange rates.

Level 2 adds purchase-level details such as a customer reference number (e.g., a PO number or invoice number) and the total sales tax amount. This additional context signals to the card network that the transaction is a verified business purchase and may qualify for a lower interchange tier.

Level 3 includes everything in Level 2, plus line-item detail for each product or service in the transaction. This includes item descriptions, quantities, unit prices, commodity codes, and unit of measure. Level 3 provides the most complete transaction information and qualifies for the lowest available interchange rates.

The more data you provide, the lower the interchange rate the card networks are willing to offer — because richer data reduces fraud risk and simplifies reconciliation for the card-issuing bank.

Most B2B transactions are paid with commercial, corporate, or purchasing cards. These card types carry significantly higher base interchange rates than standard consumer cards — often 2.5% to 3.0% or more. However, they are also the card types most likely to qualify for L2/L3 interchange discounts.

The savings can be substantial. For Mastercard commercial and fleet cards, the difference between a standard interchange rate and a Level 3-qualified rate can exceed 100 basis points (1.0%+) per transaction. On a $10,000 payment, that translates to $100 or more in savings on a single transaction.

Without L2/L3 data submission, these savings are left on the table — regardless of which payment processor you use. Many processors either do not support L2/L3 data, require merchants to build and maintain the integration themselves, or charge additional fees to enable it.

Tesorio Pay includes L2/L3 enhanced scheme data submission as a built-in capability of our payment processing platform.

Automatic data enrichment. When Tesorio processes a card payment on your behalf, we automatically attach the required L2/L3 fields to every eligible transaction. This includes the customer reference number, tax amount, line-item descriptions, quantities, unit prices, commodity codes, and total amounts.

Real-time validation. Our processing partner validates the L2/L3 data before submitting it to the card networks. If any required field is missing or incorrectly formatted, the system identifies the issue immediately so it can be corrected — ensuring your transactions consistently qualify for the lowest available rates.

Ongoing monitoring. Tesorio monitors the interchange qualification status of every transaction. We track whether each payment qualified for Level 2, Level 3, or standard interchange, and use this data to continuously optimize submission accuracy.

L2/L3 interchange discounts are available for specific Visa- and Mastercard-issued commercial card types. The most common qualifying card types include:

Commercial credit cards — Corporate cards issued to businesses for general purchasing

Purchasing cards (P-cards) — Cards designated for procurement and vendor payments

Fleet cards — Cards used for fuel, vehicle maintenance, and fleet-related expenses

Business cards — Small business cards (typically qualify for Level 2 only)

Standard consumer credit and debit cards do not qualify for L2/L3 interchange rates, as these discounts are designed specifically for B2B and commercial transactions.

American Express transactions can include L2/L3 data for reporting and fraud prevention purposes, but American Express does not currently offer interchange discounts based on data level.

For every eligible transaction, Tesorio submits the following enhanced scheme data fields to the card networks:

These fields are formatted according to Visa and Mastercard specifications and validated before submission to ensure they meet the data requirements for interchange qualification.

The actual savings depend on your payer mix—specifically, how many of your incoming payments are made with commercial card types eligible for L2/L3 rates. Businesses with a high share of corporate, purchasing, or fleet card payments will see the greatest impact.

As a general benchmark, qualifying Mastercard commercial transactions can see interchange reductions of 80 to 120+ basis points when L2/L3 data is submitted. Visa commercial transactions can see similar reductions when Level 3 data is provided.

Many payment processors either do not support L2/L3 data at all or treat it as an optional add-on that requires additional integration work. With Tesorio Pay:

L2/L3 data enrichment is built into our platform. If the data is available, all payments are submitted to capture the lowest possible interchange. If the data isn't available, we'll work with you to optimize the payment sent to the Card schemes.

L2/L3 data submission is included in your Tesorio Pay processing at no extra cost.

We handle the data formatting, validation, and submission to ensure your eligible transactions qualify for the lowest available interchange rates.

You can see which transactions qualified for reduced interchange rates directly in your Tesorio Pay reporting.

Do I need to change anything in my workflow to benefit from L2/L3 rates? No. Tesorio Pay automatically handles L2/L3 data submission. No changes are required to your invoicing, ERP, or payment collection processes.

Will all of my transactions qualify for lower interchange rates? Not all transactions will qualify. L2/L3 interchange discounts apply only to eligible commercial card types (corporate, purchasing, and fleet cards). Standard consumer cards and debit cards are not eligible. The share of your transactions that qualify depends on the card types your payers use.

Does this apply to both Visa and Mastercard? Yes. Both Visa and Mastercard offer reduced interchange rates for transactions that include L2/L3 data.

What about American Express? American Express does not currently offer interchange discounts based on data level. However, Tesorio does submit enhanced data on American Express transactions for reporting and fraud prevention purposes.

How can I see whether my transactions qualify? Tesorio Pay reporting shows the interchange qualification status of your transactions. You can review this data by navigating to Customer Payments > Tesorio Pay > Reports in your Tesorio dashboard.

Is L2/L3 data the same as "enhanced data" or "enhanced scheme data"? Yes. These terms are used interchangeably. "Enhanced scheme data" is the technical term used by payment processors, while "Level 2/Level 3 data" is the more common industry terminology.

Have questions about L2/L3 interchange optimization or Tesorio Pay pricing? Contact your Tesorio account representative or email us at support@tesorio.com.