Merchants do discriminate against card types. Some merchants will take Visa debit and not any other visa cards. Some will charge extra like Venmo and Verizon if you use anything but a Visa Debit. Some subscription merchants won't let you use non-reloadable prepaid card especially if they offer a low amount trial and its also against the merchant agreement to charge a non-reloadable prepaid card with the recurring flag which subscription merchants set to get better success rate on auths.
Debit cards and credit cards are obviously different beasts though. You might as well be comparing cash against credit cards. Nobody expects them to be treated equally. The question was, can/do merchants discriminate against different types of credit cards from the same network (such as regular vs. Signature Rewards)?
There is debit, prepaid, prepaid non-reloadable, business credit, business debit, government/purchasing, payroll, credit cards(gold, signature,infinite) in the US. Add international and there's a lot more like Electron(travel debit). It even gets more complicated because debit can be broken down to durbin and non durbin. You can actually get debit cards that give you rewards that charge at credit card level interchange rates.
If you're talking credit cards, I don't know anyone that discriminates against the different types but it is very possible because you can get that info from the PAN.
> I don't know anyone that discriminates against the different types but it is very possible because you can get that info from the PAN.
Yes, this was my question, i.e. I'm wondering if merchants can be charged different rates for the same kind of card (e.g. for Visa signature credit cards coming from different issuers or having different perks) consistent with contracts/laws/other practicalities, not just from a strictly technical standpoint. (Any what the relevant reasons might be.)
