Glossary Of Merchant Account Terms

--- Acquirer        
A financial institution that establishes and maintains the merchant account.  
       
--- Address verification service (AVS)
A service that verifies the cardholder's address. This service is used primarily by mail/phone order merchants.   
                             
--- Batch
Financially unsettled group of transactions.        

--- Card associations
Payment networks consisting of major credit card companies that fund transactions.    
    
--- Cardholder
The owner of the credit or debit card that is being used to make a purchase.

--- Chargeback
A disputed transaction that has been returned to the merchant.  

--- Check conversion
A check protection service by which a merchant scans a check image and converts it into an electronic transaction.        
  
--- Clearing
A reconciled and settled transaction between an acquirer and an issuer.

--- CVC2
MasterCard's term for this security code.

--- CVV2
The 3 digit code printed on the back of a Visa card.

--- Discount rate
The financial charge incurred by the merchant by the acquirer for the daily credit card transactions - The amount charged to a merchant by the acquirer for processing the merchant's daily credit card transactions.

--- DUKPT
Derived Unique Key Per Transaction, which is an encryption technique that prevents the disclosure of any previously used key.

--- Imprinter
A manual device used to imprint embossed card information onto sales drafts for transaction records.      

--- Interchange fee
The amount card associations charge acquirers for each card transaction. 

--- Issuer
The financial institution that issues a credit card to a cardholder.            

--- Merchant
A business that has a contract with an acquirer to enable credit card processing services.

--- Merchant account
The contract between a merchant and an acquirer, for the acquirer to underwrite credit card transactions.   
       
--- Point-of-sale (POS) terminal
A combination of hardware and software that facilitates credit cards processing and other services.

--- Secure Socket Layer (SSL)
A security feature that protects Internet communications.          

--- Settlement
The exchange of data or funds between the acquirer and the issuer.        

--- Virtual terminal
An Internet-based portal used for processing card transactions.