What Visa's New DCAP Program Means for Merchants

Visa launched their new Digital Commerce Authentication Program (DCAP) in the United States back in April. This new program quietly rearchitects how Visa rewards online merchants for best-practice processing. If you want to continue earning interchange savings on ecommerce transactions, you may need to make some changes.

First Thing’s First: What is DCAP?

DCAP is a voluntary program that helps merchants unlock interchange savings on customer-initiated ecommerce transactions made with Visa consumer credit cards. To qualify for reduced rates, you must share four specific data fields with each transaction: 

• Device ID

• IP address

• Email address

• Full billing address

This additional customer and device data gives issuers more context for evaluating legitimacy. You can send this data through 3DS rails or directly via Visa's API. You don’t even have to use 3DS authentication on the transaction—it's just a data-sharing channel. 

DCAP savings are 10bps per qualifying transaction, but participation in the program comes with a 5 basis points Enhanced Data Program Fee, so you’re looking at net savings of 5bps on each transaction for which you pass the required data accurately and completely. Transactions that don't qualify aren't downgraded in the traditional sense; they just don't earn the incentive rate.

There are a few key points to keep in mind about this program:

1. Qualification is per transaction - You have ultimate flexibility to decide on a transaction-by-transaction basis if you want to pursue DCAP savings. You’ll only pay the DCAP fee on transactions with the required data fields.

2. Placeholder data won’t work - If you send an empty field, a placeholder email, or an incomplete billing address, that transaction won’t qualify for the interchange discount, but you will pay the fee. Your data has to be complete and accurate, or you’re wasting money.

3. Customers aren’t impacted - All DCAP work happens in the background, so there’s no added customer friction or extra checkout steps.

4. Network token savings also changed - This quiet change is especially important, so we’re going to give it a designated header. Continue reading for more details:

How Does DCAP Impact Network Tokens?

If you’re already optimizing your payments stack, this is where you’ll want to really pay attention to DCAP. Before Visa launched DCAP, network tokens alone delivered around 10 basis points of interchange savings in the US on Visa consumer credit card transactions. That has changed. 

Now, processing qualifying transactions with a network token only gets you 5bps. To see the double-digit network tokenization savings you were accustomed to, you need to combine DCAP and network tokens. If you were already using network tokens and haven't looked at DCAP, your token economics have quietly shifted.

Relevant Product Updates

The Opportunities dashboard of the Pagos Service Panel includes a Network Tokens section where you can see the potential savings available if you implement a network token strategy. Savings in the US market reflect the updated 5bps savings figure for standalone token transactions.

There is one limitation: DCAP qualification is evaluated per transaction and isn't part of the data Pagos ingests. As such, we can't show you whether individual transactions qualified for DCAP or estimate your DCAP savings opportunity. That being said, if you filter the Network Token Opportunity tab to show only opportunities in the United States market, the savings figure represents what's available from network tokens alone; combine that with DCAP, and the savings potential doubles.

Take Action Today

DCAP is a relatively low-lift program with real savings potential. The 5bps net savings can add up fast at scale, and not pursuing them means leaving money on the table while also getting less out of your existing token investment.

The practical checklist is short: confirm you can collect and pass the four required data fields accurately, understand which transactions qualify, and make sure your PSP or gateway supports the data submission. If you're already there, DCAP is essentially opt-in savings. If you're not, it's worth knowing exactly what the gap is before you decide.