YOUR KNOWLEDGE CAN HELP YOU WHEN IT IS
ABOUT TOBACCO MERCHANT ACCOUNT PAYMENT GATEWAY
Most of the business
owners are not familiar with the terms
used in merchant services. There are
numerous terms which you may not
understand the first time but when you
spend some time and effort you will be
able to master the terms in the industry
of credit card processing. This is
essential for you to make the right
decision so that your business will
greatly benefit from your choice of the
provider.
The “merchant account” is
a special account or a contract between
a bank and you which allows you to
accept credit card payments from your
customers. The acquirer or the acquiring
bank is any financial institution which
creates a merchant account for you and
also services it. The bank also receives
the payments for your transactions from
the credit card companies like Discover,
American Express, MasterCard and Visa.
In the credit card
industry, “Card Associations” are
nothing but payment networks that are
the gateways between issuers and
acquirers. It is by these associations
that the authorization and the funding
of the transactions take place. The
financial institution which issues the
credit card to the individual is the
“issuer”, also known as the “issuing
bank”.
In e – commerce business,
the shopping cart is a software
application which lets customers collect
all their items in to it and then pay
for all the items at once. The shopping
cart will maintain the sum of all the
products that were selected by you and
will also add the shipping charges and
the taxes with the final amount. This
application provides a safe and secure
manner to do the purchases.
There is the “virtual
terminal” which is a software
application that simulates your credit
card terminal, where the cards are
swiped to accept your payments. It is a
means for processing of credit card
transactions. The Online Merchants need
this application to accept credit cards
from their customers. This application
is also called the “Payment Gateway”.
When the transaction
progresses, then it has to be “settled”.
This is either exchange of funds or data
between the issuer and the acquirer.
Another term that is important for a
merchant is “Batch”. It is accumulating
of transactions every day and
dispatching it for settlement at the end
of the day, in a batch. “End of Day” is
the preferred time for most merchants to
settle their transactions.
“ATM Verify” is a
technology or software application which
is used in eCheck transactions. It
verifies whether the account mentioned
in the eCheck, exists and has sufficient
funds in it to complete this
transaction. All this is done in real
time.
And lastly, let’s speak a
little about the primary folks who keep
your business running – your customers.
However, in the credit card industry
they are referred to as “Card Holders”.
They are the people who use the credit
cards to make payments for the products
or services which they have bought from
your company or your online business.
Contact one of our
helpful account representatives to
assist you in the setup of a
high risk merchant account or
offshore merchant account for a
high risk merchant. |