Account Termination Fees Fees charged when a merchant account is terminated.
Acquirer A financial institution that concludes an agreement with merchants for the acceptance of payment cards as a means of payment for goods and services, and that settles card payments for merchants.
Alternative payments A catch-all term for payment options outside of cards and cash (the “traditional” payment tools) such as digital wallets.
Bank transfers Electronic payments made directly from a payer's bank account to a beneficiary's account.
Biometrics The physical or behavioral characteristics used to verify personal identity such as fingerprints or facial recognition.
Blockchain A blockchain is a ledger with digitally recorded data and information in packages called blocks. The records can’t be changed and the ledger can be shared and accessed by anyone with the appropriate permissions.
Buy now pay later (BNPL) A service that allows consumers to borrow money to repay the purchase price of goods or services usually in a set number of installments.
Card payments Payments made using cards with a debit, credit, or delayed debit function; this includes POS and remote card transactions.
Card Association Fee/ Assessment Fee A fee that the Acquiring Bank charges the Merchant for each transaction, which is given to the Card Brands (most commonly Visa and MasterCard) as compensation.
Card regulations The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI-DSS) Requirements and Security Assessment Procedures, as this may be amended from time to time, and any other regulations and/or terms and conditions in force at any given time and applicable to each Payment Instrument and/ or issued jointly or severally by the card organizations.
Card schemes An organization that provides a legal and operational framework for clearing card payment transactions. Here at payabl. we are direct members of Visa and Mastercard schemes.
Cardholder The person whose name appears on the credit or debit card.
Card-not-present transactions or CNP Transactions A Card-not-present transaction refers to a MOTO (mail order or telephone order) transaction, or a transaction made over the Internet where the physical card was not presented to the Merchant, nor was it read by a 'Point of Sale' device.
Chargeback A transaction reversal that cardholders initiate when they notice fraudulent activity on their card activity. It’s important for merchants to prevent or reduce chargebacks as a high chargeback rate increases company fees and damages a business’ reputation.
Cheques (checks) A physical written payment note given to a payee to receive a payment from the payer’s bank account when presented to a bank or financial institution.
Contactless payments Contactless payments, Card payments that utilize built-in NFC antennae in plastic cards to make payments at the point of sale (POS) without requiring physical contact between the card and the POS terminal.
Digital Wallet Also known as a Mobile Wallet, managed via a mobile phone. Various digital cards and/or accounts can be stored in a mobile wallet and can be used to make a payment without a physical card.
Ecommerce The buying and selling of goods and services on the internet.
EMI Electronic Money Institution, A legal company that has an operating license to disburse electronic money.
Fee table A table of fees charged by the Card Acquirer to the Merchant for the provision of their services, as this may be amended from time to time by the Acquirer with a third-party prior written notification to the Merchant.
Flat-rate pricing A single all-in fee charged from the payment processor to the merchant for all transactions, regardless of the transaction's amount.
Foreign Currency Exchange Fees The fees charged when the transaction currency is different from the settlement currency. For example, if the transaction has been made in USD but merchants want to receive the money in EUR, Foreign Currency Exchange Fees will be applied.
High-risk fee As high-risk businesses are more prone to chargebacks, they come with the need for paying higher fees for their high-risk merchant account and related merchant services.
Hosted Payment Page The payabl. payment portal that a merchant can opt to use as their checkout page on their website. This requires no coding and is simple to set up.
Interchange fees The percentage of the value of a transaction or other amount charged by, or payable to, Card Issuers as interchange fees for a transaction processed on the merchant's behalf. This is performed under the Merchant Agreement, as determined in accordance with the Card Scheme Rules.
Interchange plus A pricing model whereby the merchant is charged the Interchange, the Card Association Fee, and a Markup Fee.
Interface The Acquirer's Web Interface to be used by the Merchant for the purposes of uploading Transactions.
Issuer A financial institution that issues payment cards (credit, debit, and prepaid cards) as a member bank of the card organization and receives transactions from its cardholders from other member banks or merchants.
Issuing bank An issuing bank is a bank or financial institution that issues debit and credit cards to consumers or merchants. Through a card issuer, individuals or businesses can get credit, debit, or prepaid cards from the most well-known card networks like Visa and Mastercard.
Mastercard fraud fine The Fee charged by Mastercard in case the merchant does not meet certain fraud thresholds.
Merchant Once we enter into an agreement to be your payment services provider, we'll be happy to refer to you as a merchant.
Merchant account The merchant account is created by the Acquirer for the Merchant pursuant to the Agreement.
Merchant acquirer A merchant acquirer is a bank or financial institution that offers card payment processing services to merchants. To accept credit card and debit card payments, a merchant needs to partner with a payment acquirer who will handle the authorization and authentication aspects of transactions.
Merchant authorization fee The authorization fee is charged each time a transaction is sent to the card-issuing bank to be authorized. The fee is payable on each attempt, as well as each refund or void request.
Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) A fee charged to the merchant for processing credit card and debit card transactions.
Merchant statement The monthly statement produced by the Merchant Acquirer of all the charges and credits pertaining to the individual Merchant account.
Merchant transaction fee A merchant transaction fee is payable on each successfully executed transaction.
Minimum monthly fee The fee charged if the sum of all processing fees (discount rate fees, transaction fees, settlement fees etc) does not reach a minimum amount.
Mobile commerce (M-commerce) A type of eCommerce, where a mobile device is used to make an online purchase rather than a computer.
Mobile wallet A digital wallet managed via a mobile phone. Various digital cards and/or accounts can be stored securely to use for digital payments.
NFC Near Field Communication is technology that allows devices to send information to each other using radio waves. For example, a POS terminal and the chip inside a credit card.
OCT Fee (Original Credit Transaction) OCT (Original Credit Transaction) is a payment method that enables merchants to send funds directly to credit card users in multiple currencies to more than 200 countries. The service is available as Visa OCT and MasterCard MoneySend.
Payment Card Industry (PCI) Compliance Fees The PCI Compliance fees are paid to your processor for compliance with standards set by the Payment Card Industry. In the case of compliance, you must pay the merchant account provider (monthly or annually) to make sure you remain in line with the regulations at all times.
Payment Link A unique link created by the merchant from the Dashboard that allows customers to pay for goods or services without a checkout page.
Payment processor A payment processing company is one that produces technology to allow merchants to accept credit and debit card payments. A payment processor executes transactions and usually acts as a mediator between the bank and the merchant.
Pay-out Is the disbursement of funds from the payment provider to a payee, in this case, the merchant.
Refund A refunded transaction occurs when a cardholder asks the merchant for their funds back.
Reserve account An account under the merchant’s acquirer control where funds due to the merchant are credited pending release to the merchant.
Retrieval request A retrieval request occurs when a credit card issuer or the cardholder asks a merchant for a copy of a transaction ticket. If a cardholder or issuer disputes a card transaction, the request is the first step taken to resolve the matter. The most common reasons that a retrieval request is undertaken is when cardholders lose their copy of a transaction and need it for their records, or when questioning a transaction.
Rolling reserve fund An account designated and operated by the Acquirer for all indebtedness incurred by the Merchant under the Agreement, including, but not limited to, chargebacks and fees.
Security deposit The funds in the security deposit (reserve account) can be used for any unanticipated costs. For example, if a customer requests a chargeback but the business’s cash flow doesn’t have enough funds, the merchant account reserve can be used to help cover such costs.
SEPA Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) controls the standardisation of electronic payments in euros across Europe. Under SEPA, all bank accounts must be identified by an International Bank Account Number (IBAN) and a Bank Identifier Code (BIC).
Settlement A process through which a merchant receives money paid by their end-users for a product/service.
Set-up fee A one-time payment per each merchant setup account. The set-up fee is deducted from the merchant's settlement payment.
Statement fees These are fees charged to cover printing and mailing costs for credit and debit card statements.
Transaction A CNP (Card-not-present) transaction made with a Payment Instrument, authorized by the Cardholder and submitted to the Merchant, and subsequently to the Acquirer, for the purchase and/or the provision of goods and/or services.
Virtual Terminal or VT A Virtual Terminal is an online device used to capture credit and debit card details for submitting Card-Not-Present transactions to a card acquirer.
Visa 3D Secure scheme fee The Visa 3D Secure Scheme Fee is a fee on transactions authenticated through the security protocol 3D Secure (Visa Secure). The fee is charged on each 3DSecure authentication attempt and void request.
Visa fraud fine The Fee charged by Visa if a merchant does not meet certain Fraud thresholds.
Volume discount A fee that is assessed when a credit card payment from a customer is processed, the discount rate comprising of fees, assessments, network charges, dues, and markups by the merchant that are required for the acceptance of debit and credit cards.
Wire Transfer Fee per SEPA Transfer or International SWIFT Transfer.
A fee charged on each payment transfer with SEPA or SWIFT.