My Merchant Account Blog

Independent Sales Agent

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

People who sell bankcard services to merchants on behalf of ISOs, acquirers and processors. Also known as merchant level salespeople (MLSs) and independent sales agents (ISAs), most agents are independent contractors. Others are paid employees of ISOs , acquirers and processors. Also known as: agents,ISA.

Hold Back

Sunday, April 24, 2011

The money set aside from a merchant's credit card receipts to cover potential chargebacks or other disputes. Typically, the amount is returned after a specified period. Also known as a hold back. Also known as: reserve

Gift Card Mall

Thursday, April 21, 2011

A physical or virtual rack or display unit that allows customers of a destination retailer to buy a prepaid card issued by a range of different prepaid card issuers. Also referred to as "gift card center" and "gift card shop."

General Purpose - General Spend Card

Monday, April 18, 2011

An open-loop or network-branded card whose sole purpose is to facilitate normal spending transactions, with functionality similar to a debit card but without the need for a bank account.

Customer Support Fee

Friday, April 15, 2011

The customer support fee is a fixed fee charged by the card processor.  The fee covers the any customer support the merchant may need.  It is usually a flat monthly fee that is charged to the merchant to help cover any extra costs outside the merchant account fees. 

The fee is sometimes useful to help keep the costs down with a merchant account processor.

The customer support fee can be anywhere from $0.00 to $500.00 a month.

Floor Limit

The payment amount above which credit and debit card transactions must be authorized; this amount is specified in each merchant's processing agreement.The term floor limit comes from the days when it was the maximum amount which could be approved on the floor (of the retailer), beyond which the cash register operator would have to call for approval.

Factoring

Monday, April 11, 2011

When a merchant processes sales through his or her merchant account on behalf of another merchant. Laundering violates the terms of merchant agreements. Also called draft laundering and factoring. Also known as: card laundering.

Expiration Date

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Date after which a card can no longer be used. Most network-branded cards have an expiration date. Some closed-loop cards expire after a certain period of inactivity or after a certain date, although this is becoming increasingly rare.

End-To-End Data Encryption

Tuesday, April 05, 2011

Refers to the process of converting card data to seemingly unreadable text from the moment it gets entered at the POS and through to the final authorization. Sensitive data that travels over a network are securely encrypted from the point of data entry to the point where the data is processed. Sensitive data may be user name, password, credit card number, etc.

Encryption

Saturday, April 02, 2011

A method of protecting data. Encryption transforms readable information using an algorithm (called a cipher) and makes it unintelligible to anyone except those who possess a key that converts the information back into readable form. See also end-to-end data encryption. Encryption is the most effective way to achieve data security. To read an encrypted file, you must have access to a secret key or password that enables you to decrypt it. Unencrypted data is called plain text ; encrypted data is referred to as cipher text.