The uLite Cash Discount Program “uLite”, is a way for merchants to counteract most of the costs associated with credit card processing fees. A cash discount is a discounted cost of the full price a business charges for goods and services. Merchants may charge the full price for consumers paying by credit card, while providing a discount for consumers paying with cash.

You place prices for your goods or services that will be the cash discount prices. Any customer purchasing an item with a card will have a service fee added to all of their transactions. A cash discount works by applying a small customer service fee on all customer transactions. This fee is removed if the customer pays with cash or an in-store gift card. uLite proprietary software will automatically determine the service fee or discount amounts depending on the payment type. Legal cash discount programs must present a clear receipt detailing the service fee or cash discount amount. Service fees are collected by uLite who then pays off the credit card charges on behalf of the merchant, essentially removing the need for any back-end accounting or complex statements.

There are no extra fees for you as a merchant! In fact, you will be provided with tremendous savings. Merchants pay as low as $25 per month for your processing account. Your savings are easy to calculate; if you paid $1000 last month in processing fees, you will save up to $975 each month!

The program is legal in all 50 states. The Dodd-Frank Act prohibits payment card networks “from inhibiting the ability of anyone to provide a discount for payment by cash, check, debit card or credit card”.

Due to the result of a court approved settlement with merchants, card issuers agreed to modify their rules to permit U.S. merchants to discount goods and services for customers paying in cash.

A surcharge is when the merchant increases the price for card purchases. A cash discount is when a merchant provides a lower cost for cash prices, with the posted prices being cash. Although seemingly similar, there is one major difference; surcharging can only be applied to credit cards and no other forms of payment like debit or gift cards. uLite allows for an increase on any type of payment that is not cash.

Almost. Some merchants will still see some ancillary fees on their bill as per the uLite Agreement depending on the type of transactions they process. For example, if you process EBT (SNAP) benefits cards you will still have to pay authorization fees for those cards. In addition there will be a small monthly service fee shown on your monthly bill.

If you explain that uLite is a way for you to keep providing quality goods and services without increasing your overall prices, most consumers have indicated they understand and are fine with it. A 4% Service Fee on an individual transaction generally has a very small impact to the consumer, but for you, the merchant, your savings are significant. While nobody wants to pay additional fees, more and more consumers are starting to realize just how expensive it’s been for merchants to accept credit cards. By charging a 4% Service Fee on a sales transaction, that’s a small price for customers to pay for the goods and services you provide. uLite allows you to stay in business and keep your overall costs at a minimum.

Yes. A merchant must provide clear disclosure of total price, including the Service Fee, on the customer’s receipt.

Visa and Mastercard, the card associations have strict guidelines on how a cash discount program must be implemented.

1) Correct signage must be posted

2) The amount of the added service fee must be displayed on the receipt. We provide the training and the technology to follow these guidelines.

Absolutely! If you feel uLite is not a fit for your business, we can easily switch you back to traditional credit card processing. We will even beat the rates you were paying with your old processor by putting you on a interchange pass-through program.