Payments glossary

Definitions for the terms you'll hear when boarding a merchant account, routing payments, or fighting a chargeback. Written by the Cardflo team.

A

The licensed bank or financial institution that holds the merchant's MID and settles card transactions on the merchant's behalf.

Any non-card payment method, wallets, bank transfers, BNPL, vouchers, accepted at checkout.

A single flat rate (e.g. 2.9% + 30¢) charged on all card transactions regardless of underlying interchange.

The merchant-facing payment surface, the form, hosted page, or SDK where the customer enters payment details.

A card transaction where the issuer country differs from the acquirer country, attracting higher interchange and scheme fees.

A merchant whose vertical, business model, or chargeback profile makes standard acquirers reluctant to board them.

The fee paid by the acquirer to the issuer on every card transaction, set by the schemes.

Transparent acquirer pricing model that passes interchange and scheme fees through at cost with a fixed processor markup on top.

Four-digit ISO 18245 code used by card schemes to classify a merchant's business.

A unique identifier issued by an acquirer that ties transactions to a specific merchant account.

A technical layer that encrypts card data, forwards authorisation requests to an acquirer, and returns the result to the merchant.

A vendor that provides payment-acceptance technology, gateway, vaulting, reporting, sometimes acquiring, under one contract.

Fees charged by Visa and Mastercard (or another scheme) to acquirers and issuers on every transaction.

The merchant name and contact info shown on the cardholder's statement.

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