Visa BASE I/II Specifics Quiz

1. What is the fundamental difference between Visa's BASE I and BASE II systems?

BASE I handles credit cards, BASE II handles debit cards BASE I is real-time authorization, BASE II is batch clearing/settlement BASE I uses ISO8583, BASE II uses XML BASE I is for domestic transactions, BASE II is for international

2. In Visa's DE63, what does Subelement 1 contain and why is it critical?

CVV2 validation result - determines if transaction is fraudulent Transaction ID assigned by VisaNet - links authorization to clearing and disputes Merchant category code - used for interchange fee calculation PIN verification result - confirms cardholder identity

3. What format does Visa BASE I require for bitmaps?

Binary (8 bytes for primary bitmap) BCD-encoded (4 bytes packed) Hex-ASCII (16 characters for primary bitmap) Either binary or hex-ASCII depending on message type

4. You receive a Visa authorization response with DE63 Subelement 3 = 'N' (CVV2 No Match) but DE39 = '00' (Approved). What does this mean?

There's an error in the message - CVV2 failure should mean decline The issuer approved despite CVV2 mismatch - check DE39 for actual auth result The transaction was approved but will be reversed automatically The CVV2 check was not performed due to system error

5. What timezone does Visa require for DE7 (Transmission Date/Time), DE12 (Local Time), and DE13 (Local Date)?

Local timezone of the terminal Local timezone of the acquirer GMT/UTC Eastern Standard Time (EST)

6. When populating DE35 (Track 2 Data) for Visa, what must you do with the track data?

Include start sentinel (;) and end sentinel (?) Strip start and end sentinels, include only the data between them Convert to BCD encoding Pad to exactly 37 characters

7. What is the correct TLV format used in Visa's DE63 subelements?

EMV BER-TLV with multi-byte tags Simple TLV: 1-byte tag, 2-byte ASCII length, variable value XML-based key-value pairs Fixed-position fields without tags

8. In DE62 for a Visa authorization, what does 'P2' indicate?

Processing code 2, POS condition 0 Card present (chip read), PIN verified Partial approval requested, 2 retries allowed Primary account, secondary authorization

9. A merchant receives Merchant Advice Code '03' in DE48 Tag 26. What action should they take?

Retry the transaction immediately Wait 24 hours and retry Stop recurring billing for this card - do not try again Update the card data and retry

10. What combination of fields constitutes the minimum matching key for Visa transactions?

STAN (DE11) only RRN (DE37) only STAN + Date + Acquirer ID Transaction ID (DE63 SE1) only

11. What is the primary difference between Visa's 0100/0110 and 0200/0210 message pairs?

0100 is for credit cards, 0200 is for debit cards 0100 is authorization only (settlement via BASE II), 0200 is full financial (single message) 0100 is for online, 0200 is for offline transactions 0100 is domestic, 0200 is international

12. You're parsing DE63 and the Network ID field contains 'MC' instead of 'VS'. What does this indicate?

The message is from Mastercard, not Visa The message uses a different DE63 format version The message was misrouted - should have gone to Mastercard This is a Visa-Mastercard co-branded card transaction

13. What does Visa response code '94' indicate and what action should be taken?

System malfunction - retry the transaction Duplicate transmission - do NOT retry (transaction may have been processed) Issuer unavailable - retry after 30 seconds Invalid card number - request new card data

14. When parsing EMV TLV data in DE55, how do you identify a multi-byte tag?

The first byte is greater than 0x80 The lower 5 bits of the first byte are all 1s (0x1F) The tag starts with 0x9F The tag length field indicates multiple bytes

15. DE63 is missing from a Visa authorization response. What is the most likely explanation?

The message is corrupted and should be rejected VisaNet rejected the transaction early, before assigning a Transaction ID This is a network management message, not an authorization The terminal didn't request Transaction ID in the request