Acquiring Bank
Or Processing Bank, receives the credit card information electronically and processes it for payment to the merchant.
Return to TopAVS
Address Verification System; the procedure, as prompted by the processing terminal, for cross-referencing customer’s addresses with cardholder information on record in order to secure the most favorable discount rate.
Return to TopBatch
The collective transactions/sales in the processing terminal pending settlement.
Return to TopChargeback
A credit card transaction that is “charged” or billed back to the merchant after a sale. Chargebacks are initiated by the customer’s issuing bank. The merchant is obliged to defend the claim to the processing bank.
Return to TopDowngrade
An increase in discount rate that automatically occurs when the merchant accepts any card, other than a standard credit card, such as a corporate, business, purchasing, or fleet card etc. Also occurs when a card is not “swiped” but “keyed” in, or when merchant is remiss in closing batch timely or in following AVS requirements.
Return to TopIssuing Bank
The Bank that physically issues the credit card to the cardholder and receives the payment at the end of the billing period.
Return to TopInterchange
The standardized fees assessed by Visa/MasterCard to their member processing banks for every category of credit card transaction.
Return to TopPayment Gateway
A collection of companies that securely process credit cards over the internet, then relay that money to their processing banks. A customer’s credit card information, authenticity, and authorization requests and responses are verified through the payment gateway’s technology.
Return to TopRates
Or “Discount Rates” are fee structures that the Acquiring or Processing Bank charges it’s merchants for various types of credit card transactions. Click
here for a detailed explanation of all rate levels.
Return to TopRetrieval Request
When a customer’s bank requests written reproduction of the sales draft used in their transactions, usually in response to a dispute initiated by the customer. At this point it is not yet a chargeback.
Return to TopSettlement
Synonymous with “closing” or “batching out” the terminal. The transmission of the daily sales transactions to the merchant bank for processing and payment.
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