Just because you own a business and want to process credit card payments, it doesn’t guarantee that you know all the terms that you will come across when looking for a credit card processing company or looking at your statement. Here are some terms that you will want to know the definition of.
ACQUIRER-is the term for the bank that processes and settles credit card transactions. The card issuer assists the acquirer.
AUTHORIZATION-is the term used to describe the process of verifying that a cardholder has sufficient funds available to cover the amount of the transaction.
BATCH-is the term used to describe the group of transactions that is saved on the processing equipment. The transactions are processed in a group, usually at the close of business. For businesses that are 24 hours, there is usually a time once a day that the batch is processed.
CARDHOLDER-this it the term used to refer to the owner of the card being used to make a payment.
CARD NETWORK-this is the term used for the networks that act as an intermediary to authorize credit card transactions between the acquirer and the issuer. The largest and most well known networks are Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover.
CHARGEBACK-when there is a dispute on a transaction or the card was invalid, the merchant will have the transaction amount paid to them, withdrawn and returned to the acquirer. There are often additional chargeback fees that the merchant will be responsible to pay.
DISCOUNT FEE-this is the fee that is charged to the merchant to pay for the cost of processing a card payment, it is paid to the acquirer.
INTERCHANGE FEE-this is the processing fee that is charged to the merchant that is paid to the card issuer and the card network. The fee is for services from them that allow the merchant to accept card payments.
ISSUER-the term for the financial institution, bank, credit union, or other company that issues or assists issuing a card to cardholders.
MERCHANT ACCOUNT-this is the term for an agreement between a merchant and a bank or third-party provider to accept credit and debit cards.
MERCHANT ACCOUNT PROVIDER-this is the bank or other institution that provides the merchant accounts to businesses so that they can accept card payments.
PAYMENT GATEWAY-this is the service that merchants use to accept card payments online. It is usually a combination of hardware and software that allows protected and private information to be securely sent to the merchant account provider.
Your card payment processing company can further explain the above terms or any other terms you need to understand. If you are looking for a payment processing company, contact Merchant Data Services and find out more about the services a payment processing company can provide.
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