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