Besides you and your customers, several other parties are involved in every card processing transaction.
- Cardholder is the authorized user of a credit or debit card.
- Merchant is any business entity that is authorized to accept cards for the payment of goods and services.
- Merchant Bank or Acquirer is a financial institution that provides card processing services to the merchant.
- Credit Card Network or Association is a membership organization of financial institutions that issue payment cards and/or sign merchants to accept such cards for payment of goods and services. There are two Credit Card Associations – Visa’s and MasterCard’s.
- Card Issuer is a financial institution that issues payment cards and contracts with its cardholders for billing and payment of transactions.
The entire process, from authorization to funding, typically takes about 3 days.
In the event of a chargeback (when there’s an error in processing the transaction or the cardholder disputes the transaction), the issuer returns the transaction to the acquirer for resolution. The acquirer then forwards the chargeback to the merchant, who must either accept the chargeback or contest it. For more on chargebacks, visit the Chargeback Management section of our website.
