Visa Commercial Enhanced Data Program (CEDP)

Visa’s Commercial Enhanced Data Program (CEDP) changed how business-to-business card payments are priced. For years, many B2B sellers got lower rates on corporate and purchasing cards by sending Level 2 or Level 3 data, and some of that “data” was little more than filler. Under CEDP, Visa checks the data. Only real, invoice-quality line items earn the lower rate.

If you take Visa corporate, purchasing or government cards and you haven’t looked at your commercial card costs since 2025, there’s a good chance they went up.

This article reflects published dates and public industry reporting as of October 2026. Visa announces program details through processors, so confirm specifics with yours.

The timeline

Why Visa did it

Corporate and purchasing card programs exist so that buyers’ finance teams can see what was bought: which items, how many, at what price, for which cost center. The networks priced enhanced-data transactions lower because that detail makes the cards more valuable to the companies that issue them to their buyers.

Over time, a lot of “Level 3 data” became filler. Gateways and payment plug-ins would send one line item reading “goods” or “services,” quantity 1, at the full amount, just to qualify for the lower rate. The buyer got nothing useful. CEDP closes that gap by validating the data and removing the Level 2 shortcut.

What “invoice-quality” data means

Invoice-quality data is, simply, the data on the invoice your customer actually received. In practice:

• Real line items. Each product or service on its own line, not a single summary line.
• Recognizable descriptions. “3/4 in. copper elbow, 25 pk,” not “misc.”
• Product codes and quantities that match what was shipped.
• Unit prices and line totals that add up, with tax, freight and discounts, to the amount charged.
• A tax amount where tax applies, or a clear tax-exempt flag where it doesn’t.
• A customer reference such as the buyer’s purchase order number.

Things that typically fail:

• One line for the whole order
• Descriptions like “goods,” “item,” “purchase” or “see invoice”
• Quantities of 1 on every line regardless of the order
• Totals that don’t reconcile to the payment
• The same canned line items on every transaction

What is Level 3 processing lists the full set of fields that usually travel with a Level 3 transaction.

What it costs to ignore it

On qualifying Visa corporate and purchasing cards, the difference between the standard commercial rate and the enhanced-data rate is often roughly 0.5 to 1.0 percentage point, for example around 2.70% versus around 1.75%. Rates differ by card product and change over time, but the scale is real.

A distributor taking $40,000 a month on Visa corporate and purchasing cards that lost its enhanced-data rate in late 2025 could be paying roughly $380 more a month, or about $4,560 a year, at a 0.95-point difference. And if that distributor is on flat-rate or tiered pricing, the change may never have shown up clearly on its statement.

Small-business cards are a different story. Since Visa’s January 2026 change, the Level 3 saving on those cards is small. Most of the value is in corporate, purchasing and government cards.

What distributors and B2B sellers should do

1. Measure your commercial card volume

Find out how much of your card volume is Visa corporate, purchasing and government cards. Your processor can break it out, and on an interchange-plus statement you can see it by category.

2. Check what data you’re sending today

Ask your processor or gateway provider a direct question: what line-item data goes with my commercial card payments? If the answer is “a default line item” or “we fill it in automatically,” that data likely doesn’t qualify any more.

3. Send the invoice’s own line items

The most reliable source of Level 3 data is the invoice itself. When a customer pays a specific invoice, the invoice’s lines are the data. That’s far more dependable than a gateway inventing line items after the fact.

4. Settle promptly and keep amounts consistent

Authorize and settle close together, ideally the same day, and don’t change the amount without updating the line items. Late settlement and mismatched totals are common reasons for downgrades.

5. Get on pricing that passes the saving through

Enhanced-data rates are interchange. On interchange-plus pricing, a lower interchange rate lowers your bill automatically. On flat or tiered pricing, the processor may keep the difference.

6. Check your statements after the change

Look at a statement or two after you start sending real Level 3 data. Commercial transactions should land in enhanced-data categories. If they don’t, find out why.

Questions to ask your processor

• Which of my Visa commercial transactions qualified for enhanced-data rates last month?
• What line-item data do you send, and where does it come from?
• Have I been charged any data-quality or program-related fees? Which ones, and since when?
• Do interchange changes pass through to me at cost?

How Mojo handles Level 3

With Mojo’s invoice payments, your customer pays a specific invoice through a pay link, entering their card on a secure, processor-hosted form. The invoice’s own line items go with the payment as Level 3 data, which is exactly the invoice-quality detail CEDP looks for. Pricing is cost-plus, so the enhanced-data rate shows up on your statement as a lower cost.

See Level 3 for B2B for a quick estimate, or apply online and upload your statements, and we’ll show you, within 24 hours, what your commercial card volume is costing you today. Get your free statement review.

Frequently asked questions

This guide is general information, not legal or financial advice. Card-brand rules and state laws change, so confirm specifics for your business.