Acquirer Electronic Merchant Systems or another financial institution, which receives electronic financial data from a Merchant relating to a transaction and initiates that data into an interchange system. Back to Top
Authorization This is a process that assesses transaction risk, confirms that a given transaction does not raise the account holder's debt above the account's credit limit and reserves the specified amount of credit. Back to Top
Average Ticket A predetermined dollar amount that the merchant can process on a per-sale basis. Back to Top
AVS (Address Verification Service) A service provided by Visa that checks to match the street number and zip code of the cardholder's address. It provides a level of fraud protection that helps to prevent fraud and charge-backs. Back to Top
Batch A collection of transactions that are processed as a group. You can batch orders for authorization or for capture. Your processing requests may in turn be batched for settlement by banks. Back to Top
Capture A transaction sent after the merchant has shipped the goods. This transaction will trigger the movement of funds from the Issuer to the Acquirer and then to the merchant's account. Back to Top
Cardholder Customer associated with the primary account number requesting the transaction from the card acceptor. Back to Top
Credit A claim for funds by the cardholder for the credit of his account. At the same time it provides details of funds acknowledged as payable by the acquirer (and/or the card acceptor) to the card issuer. Back to Top
Chargeback A chargeback is when a customer calls their credit card company disputing a charge because the products/services were not received. If the merchant cannot prove otherwise, then the charge is refunded to the customer at the merchant's expense. Back to Top
Discount Rate The fee a merchant pays its acquiring bank/merchant bank for the privilege to deposit the value of each day's credit purchases. The fee is usually a small percentage of the purchase value. Back to Top
Factoring This term refers to the practice of allowing more than one merchant to process transactions through a single merchant account. Factoring is not permitted under Visa, MasterCard and American Express regulations. Back to Top
Interchange The exchange of information, transaction data and money among banks. Interchange systems are managed by Visa and MasterCard associations and are very standardized so banks and merchants worldwide can use them. Back to Top
Interchange Fee A fee paid by the acquiring bank/merchant bank to the issuing bank. The fee compensates the issuer for the time after settlement with the acquiring bank/merchant bank and before it recoups the settlement value from the cardholder. Back to Top
Internet Payment Gateway A payment gateway is a service that gives merchants the ability to perform real-time credit card authorizations from a web site over the Internet. Back to Top
Issuer A financial institution that issues the identification payment card (e.g. Visaź Card) to the cardholder identified by the primary account number. Back to Top
Merchant An Electronic Merchant Systems approved seller of goods, services, and or other information who accepts payment for these items electronically. The merchant may also provide electronic selling services and/or electronic delivery of items for sale. Back to Top
Monthly Minimum Charge levied by the merchant bank instead of the monthly credit card volume multiplied by the discount rate if the merchant's monthly credit card volume multiplied by the discount rate is less than the monthly minimum. Back to Top
Monthly Volume A predetermined dollar amount that the merchant can process. Back to Top
Retrieval Request A request from a cardholder's bank for information about a charge, which is being disputed. Retrieval requests usually precede a chargeback. Back to Top
Reversal A transaction from the acquirer to the card issuer informing the card issuer that the previously initiated transaction cannot be processed as instructed, i.e., is undeliverable, unprocessed or cancelled by the receiver. Back to Top
Real-time The term "real-time" means to incur immediately. For credit card processing, this means that the validity of a customer's credit card, as well as their available credit limit can be checked immediately before processing is accepted. This is extremely important for card-present and Internet transactions, in which it is difficult and costly to get back in touch with the customer Back to Top
Secured Sockets Layer (SSL) SSL is used to encrypt and protect data usually on an order from an online merchants web site. Since the intended client machine can be identified, only that machine is able to decrypt the transmission. Back to Top
Settlement As the sales transaction value moves from the merchant to the acquiring bank, to the issuer, each party buys and sells the sales ticket. Settlement is what occurs when the acquiring bank and the issuer exchange data or funds during that function. Back to Top
Shopping Cart On an e-commerce enabled web site, a method of collecting the items chosen by a consumer for purchase from an on-line catalog. Back to Top
Statement Fee Charge levied by the merchant bank for monthly reports detailing activity on a merchant account. Back to Top
Ticket Another name for the sales slip or its monetary value that results when a credit card purchase is made. Back to Top
Transaction There are several types of transactions but the most common transaction is the process that takes place when a cardholder makes a purchase with a credit card. Back to Top
Transaction Fee A per transaction fee that is charged by the bank for processing transactions. Back to Top
