Operating Instructions

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Merchant Operating Instructions: Bureau de Change

If you operate as a bureau de change, you can offer your customers the flexibility to exchange currency/pay by card for a range of different currencies, including sterling. You can only provide bureau de change services if you have a supplementary agreement with us.

• Before you start
• Important extra instructions
• The basics
• Additional identity checks
• Additional payment card checks

• Before you start 
• • If you want to make bureau de change transactions, you must have an agreement with us, in addition to your main Contract.
  • If you offer both travel agency and bureau de change facilities, you must have separate Merchant Numbers and terminals for each facility. These will be provided in your agreement.

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• Important extra instructions 
• To process bureau de change transactions, you must follow the instructions for card present transactions, as well as the ones listed below.

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• The basics 
• • Your floor limit is zero so you will always need to obtain authorisation.
  • You cannot accept (UK- or non-UK-issued) Maestro cards.
  • Always advise the cardholder that their card issuer may charge a cash-handling fee.
  • You must ensure that the additional identity checks are fully completed.

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• Additional identity checks 
• • Before starting the transaction, ask the cardholder for a second form of identification (ID) – even if the payment card has their photograph on it.
  • This secondary ID must be a current official government document, such as a passport or a full (not, provisional) driving licence, showing the cardholder’s signature. Do not accept any other ID. The document must be current and not out of date.
  • If your customer does not have acceptable secondary ID, you must not go ahead with the transaction.
  • Examine the secondary ID carefully for changes to photographs and signatures.
  • Write full details of the secondary ID on the front of the point-of-sale (POS) receipt.
  • These details should include: serial number, expiry date, jurisdiction of issue, and the holder’s name (if it appears in a different format from that on the card) and address. Never abbreviate this information – it’s not acceptable to write "DL" for driving licence or "P No" for Passport Number. If you write abbreviations and the transaction is later proven to be fraudulent, there may be a chargeback.

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• Additional payment card checks 
• • The four-digit code, printed above or below the embossed account number on the face of the card, must match the first four digits of the account number.
  • Write this four-digit code on the front of the point-of-sale (POS) receipt with the words "card prefix" before it.
  • If you have a UV lamp, put the card under it and check the appropriate in-built security feature. Examples can be found in our Card Recognition Guide.
  • You can also use a UV lamp to view the in-built security features of any UK driving licence used as secondary ID.
    
    
  Find out more in Reducing Fraud.
   
  American Express, Diners Club and JCB
  Please use the separate instructions provided by these card companies.

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