Payment processing comes with its own vocabulary. Here are the terms merchants ask about most, defined without the jargon.
01
Acquirer / Acquiring bank
The bank that holds a merchant's account and settles card transactions on their behalf.
02
Chargeback
A transaction reversed by the cardholder's bank after a dispute, debited back from the merchant's account.
03
Interchange
The fee set by card networks and paid to the cardholder's issuing bank on every transaction.
04
Rolling reserve
A percentage of a merchant's sales held back by the processor for a set period as protection against future chargebacks.
05
MID (Merchant ID)
The unique identifier assigned to a business's merchant account, used to route and settle its transactions.