Merchant Account Glossary of Credit Card Terms
Internet Merchant
See Business Type
Issuing Bank
An Issuing Bank is any Visa/MasterCard member bank that enters into contractual relation-ships with cardholders for the issuance of cards.
Keyed
A transaction is "keyed" when the information from a credit card is manually typed into a terminal or computer (utilizing credit card processing software like Tellan). A transaction is keyed because either the card is not present at the time the transaction is entered or the equipment being used to process the transaction can’t read the card.
Lighthouse Club
The Lighthouse Club is a Humboldt Bank membership program that terminal-using merchants may join. Membership is available for a monthly fee and entitles the merchant to discounts on supplies as well as a repair warranty on their equipment.
MacAuthorize
See Tellan.
Mail Order/Telephone Order (MOTO)
See "Business Type."
Member Alert To Control High-Risk Merchants (MATCH)
MATCH is an electronic bulletin board used to track people and businesses whose merchant processing accounts are reported "terminated" by acquiring banks
Merchant Category Code (MCC)
See "SIC Code."
Merchant Identification Number (MID)
Do not confuse the MID with the Humboldt Bank merchant processing account number (the 16-digit number prefixed by "419404"). This acronym refers to the FDC-assigned number that identifies the merchant to the equipment they use to process transactions. A merchant with a Humboldt Bank merchant processing account number who uses several terminals at his location would have one MID and several TID’s (See "Terminal Identification Number").
Monthly Volume (MV)
The maximum monthly dollar volume a merchant is approved to process in Visa and Master-Card transactions. The MV is important for underwriter consideration of the file and also helps to determine what type of documentation will be required with the file. (American Ex-press, Discover or any other card processing volume is never included in the calculated monthly volume.)
PC Authorize
See "Tellan."
Personal Identification Number (PIN)
For identification purposes, PIN numbers are assigned by banks to cardholders. In this way, ATM transactions and debit card transactions may take place without a cardholder’s signature.
Pinpads
Pinpads are small boxes with a 10-key pad on them. Connected to a processing terminal, they are used by cardholders to enter PIN numbers and debit card transactions.
Point of Sale (POS)
The physical location where a sale is completed. Usually used as "POS terminal" to refer to the credit card terminal (equipment).
PTC Software
This is an ETC type 7 software product.
Purchase Cards
Purchase Cards are credit cards for use by employees of government agencies or corporations. What makes Purchase Cards different from ordinary credit cards is that they may only be used at certain types of merchant locations.
Qualified Discount Rate
Discount rates are tiered. Following is a breakdown of these tiers and examples of corresponding situations. A Qualified Discount Rate is the rate a merchant is charged when all conditions are optimum – that is, when a retail transaction is card-swiped and the merchant batches-out electronically at the end of the day. (Keyed/Internet merchants can still archive Qualified rates by obtaining an AVS response plus order number, plus batching out.) A Mid-Qualified Discount Rate is charged when a retail merchant keys a transaction or does not batch-out at the end of the day. A Non-Qualified Discount Rate is charged when a merchant keys a transaction and does not batch-out at the end of the day.
Refund Policy
This is straightforward: how will the merchant – and to what extent will the merchant – guarantee products or services sold to a cardholder? We require a refund policy of each applicant, as a liberal refund/return policy may go a long ways towards reducing the number of charge-backs that a merchant receives. A separate field on the Humboldt Bank Bankcard Application/ Agreement is labeled, "Refund Policy." When filled in, this requirement is satisfied.
Retail
See "Business Type."
Routing Number
See "ABA Routing Number."
Shopping Cart
As used on the internet, a shopping cart is analogous to choosing items in a grocery store and placing them in a shopping cart for eventual purchase. Chosen items are grouped into a single purchase (Shopping Cart) so that only one electronic purchase need be completed.
Standard Industry Code/Merchant Category Code (SIC/MCC Code)
The SIC code is a four-digit, numeric identifier of merchant business types. There are thou-sands of these codes, all of them defined by VISA International in the VISA USA Merchant Data Manual.
Comments on this entry are closed.