What are merchant levels?

Merchant levels are the categories defined by the payment brands for all businesses accepting credit cards. There are four main levels:

Merchant Level 1

This level applies to:
1. Any merchant who processes more than 6,000,000 Visa transactions per year.
2. Any merchant who has suffered a hack or an attack which resulted in a compromise of account data.
3. Any merchant who the payment card brands, at their sole discretion, determine should fall into Level 1 merchant status in order to minimize the risk to the payment card brands.

Merchant Level 2

This level applies to any merchant processing 1,000,000 to 6,000,000 credit card transactions per year.

Merchant Level 3

This level applies to any merchant processing 20,000 to 1,000,000 credit card e-commerce transactions per year.

Merchant Level 4

This level applies to any merchant processing fewer than 20,000 credit card e-commerce transactions per year, and all other merchants, regardless of acceptance channel, processing up to 1,000,000 Visa transactions per year.

_{Disclaimer - Merchant levels may change at the sole discretion of the payment brands. To learn more about merchant levels please check with the payment brands}