Merchant Services Glossary
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- ABA
- Transit number or routing number for a bank. This identifies a bank at the Federal Reserve.
- Access Card
- The plastic card used in an automated teller machine (ATM) for deposits, cash withdrawals, account transfers and other related functions.
- Account History
- The payment history of an account over a specified period, including the number of times the account was past due or over the credit limit.
- Account Number
- A unique sequence of numbers assigned to a cardholder account that identifies the issuer and type of financial transaction card.
- ACH
- Automated Clearing House-Mechanism by which banks utilize the Federal Reserve to fund and/or debit merchants electronically.
- Acquirer/Acquiring Member
- A member of MasterCard and/or Visa which maintains merchant relationships and receives all bankcard transactions from the merchant. Can also be used to describe the disbursement of funds in a cash disbursement.
- Activity File
- A file maintained within the MasterCard or Visa processing system that lists account numbers for which stand-in authorization has been approved within a four-day period.
- Activity Limits
- Values representing the maximum dollar amount or maximum transaction count (or both) that can be authorized.
- Affiliate
- A member or licensee of Visa International or Visa USA or an organization affiliated with a MasterCard member that participates under the member’s rule or card plan on either the cardholder or merchant side.
- Affinity Card
- A credit card issued by a member in conjunction with an organization or collective group (e.g., a professional association or special interest group) that is identified on the card. The card issuer often pays the organization a royalty on charge transactions.
- Affinity Group
- A club, organization, or group with a common bond, such as an alumni association, a fraternal order or a professional organization. Such groups sometimes offer their members a Visa or MasterCard with the group’s logo on it.
- Agent Bank
- Also called processing banks. Acquiring banks quote pricing to these banks and the banks, in turn, quote pricing to the merchant.
- Agent Member
- A member that, by agreement, participates in another member’s card program, usually by turning over its cardholder and merchant applications to the member administering the card program and by acting as a depository for merchants.
- Aging
- The procedure by which accounts are classified for the purpose of determining delinquency, ranging from current to charge-off status.
- Altered Card
- A card on which the original embossed or encoded information has been altered for fraudulent purposes.
- AMEX
- The normal abbreviation of American Express. For Voice Auth call 800-528-2121, for Customer Service call 800-528-0682, for merchants that want to accept Amex call 800-528-5200.
- Annual Fee
- A fee paid by a cardholder to the issuer for the privilege of holding a financial transaction card and using it to buy goods and services. Not all cards have fees.
- Annual Percentage Rate
- The yearly interest charge applicable to outstanding credit balances for one year. Often calculated as the monthly rate times 12.
- Arbitration
- The procedure a member can use to resolve a chargeback-related dispute between two members. MasterCard or Visa resolves the dispute between members and decides responsibility for the fines that may be assessed to the participating members.
- Arbitration Filing
- A formal case filing submitted after unsuccessful dispute resolution through the chargeback/presentment cycle.
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