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TERMS USED IN PAYMENT
PROCESSING
Accepting payments
through credit cards from your customers
is not very simple as seen by a few
merchants. The process of approving the
transactions and then getting the funds
is highly complicated and the terms used
to explain the process is more complex.
Most of them are highly confusing and
needs a substantial effort by the
merchant to understand. A few of the
terms used are batches, discount fees,
ISOs, payment gateways and charge backs.
The owners of business should learn the
meaning of these words and many others
to have a clear understanding of the
process. This article explains a few of
those terms.
Issuing bank
It is this bank that
provides credit cards to the consumers.
When any card holder buys something and
swipes the credit card to pay for it,
then the transaction should go through
the issuing bank. The bank either denies
or approves the transaction.
Merchant Account
It nothing but a contract
between a business owner and a financial
institution also called as the acquiring
bank. This contract permits the owner of
the business to accept payments through
credit cards from his customers.
Payment Gateway
The retail stores have
terminals to accept credit card
payments. The customers’ cards are
swiped in the terminal or the number is
entered manually. The payment gateway is
also used for online shopping.
The primary function of
the gateway is to encrypt the user data
and send it to the bank.
Chargeback
When the customer is not
satisfied and wants his money back then
he fills a chargeback complaint with his
credit card issuer. If he wins the case
then he will get his funds back. This
mostly happens when a customer finds an
unauthorized or a fraudulent transaction
in his account. The funds will be
reclaimed by the issuing bank from the
merchant’s bank.
Settlement Time
Most of the merchant
banks and payment processors will
withhold the funds after a credit card
transaction for a particular time
period. It may be for 24 hrs or even
weeks. For the owners of small
businesses who are much dependent on the
cash flow, the lengthy settlement time
will not be practical.
Processing Fees’
There are several kinds
of fees charged for every debit or
credit card transaction. It is important
that you understand all of them or at
least the one which are applicable to
you.
Discount Rate
This is the fees which
are paid each time a credit card payment
has to be processed. The Discount rate
has several components including the
interchange rate. This rate varies a lot
between different merchant accounts.
Interchange Fee
It is a portion of the
discount rate that is charged for every
credit card transaction that is made by
your business. It is applicable for
those transactions which are done using
MasterCard or Visa.
Authorization Fee
This is charged whether
or not the transaction is successful. It
is charged by the issuing bank for
authorizing the transaction.
Batch Fee
Every day, the business
owner is obliged to “batch up” his
entire day’s transactions and send it.
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