Fair Payments Alliance · Payments Glossary
The words the industry uses,
explained plainly.
182 terms covering the fees, contracts, rails and regulation behind taking a card payment. Each one says what it is, why it matters to a business, and how to check it on your own statement.
Published by the Fair Payments Alliance, not by Vigilant. We reproduce it because our advice is worth less if you cannot check the vocabulary it is written in.
Vigilant Payments and the Fair Payments Alliance share common ownership. The Standard is published openly so anyone can apply it and check the working. External review is on the FPA roadmap and does not exist yet.
A
- ACH The bank-to-bank rail behind direct deposit and recurring debits. Pennies compared to cards, slower, and reversible for days. also: Automated Clearing House, bank transfer, eCheck
- Acquirer The bank or company that holds your merchant account, takes on your risk, and deposits your money. Often not who sold you the account. also: acquiring bank, merchant acquirer, acquiring side
- Adyen The Dutch enterprise processor global brands use for one platform across every country. Not an SMB product, but increasingly behind ones you use. also: Adyen N.V., Adyen for Platforms
- Agentic Commerce AI assistants buying on a customer's behalf. Real infrastructure in 2026, real revenue for catalog eCommerce, near-zero for a local bar. also: AI agent checkout, ACP, Agentic Commerce Protocol
- American Express A card network that is also the issuing bank and, historically, the acquirer — which is why Amex costs more and behaves differently. also: Amex, AmEx, American Express OptBlue
- Anti-Assignment Clause A clause letting your counterparty transfer the contract freely while forbidding you from doing the same, which can make your business unsellable. also: assignment clause, no assignment without consent
- Assessments The small percentage Visa and Mastercard keep for themselves on every transaction, separate from the interchange that goes to the issuing bank. also: dues and assessments, network fees, brand fees
- Authorization Fee A fee charged for asking the issuing bank to approve a card - whether or not the sale ever happens. also: auth fee, per-auth fee, authorization request fee
- Authorize.net The gateway everyone has heard of, owned by Visa, ubiquitous and aging. Merchants ask for it by name more than they should. also: Authorize.Net, Auth.net, AuthorizeNet
- Average Ticket Your card volume divided by your transaction count. It decides which pricing model is right for you and what your processor watches you for. also: average transaction size, ticket size, ticket size economics
B
- Basis Point One hundredth of one percent. The unit the entire payments industry negotiates in, and the one most merchants don't speak. also: bps, bip, beep
- Batch Fee A charge each time you settle your day's transactions. Small per occurrence, meaningful over a year, and often duplicated per terminal. also: batch header fee, settlement fee, daily close fee
- BIN Sponsorship Fee What a non-bank processor pays a member bank for access to the card networks. Sometimes it appears on your statement under another name. also: sponsorship fee, sponsor bank fee, member bank fee
- Blended Pricing One averaged rate applied to all your card volume, with interchange, assessments and markup fused into a single number you can't unbundle. also: bundled pricing, blended rate, one-rate blend
- BNPL Split-payment consumer financing at checkout. A conversion and ticket-size tool, not a payments cost play — the merchant pays more, not less. also: Buy Now Pay Later, Affirm, Klarna
- BSA / AML The federal anti-money-laundering framework that reaches merchants indirectly, through the obligations it puts on banks and acquirers. also: Bank Secrecy Act, anti-money laundering, AML program
- Buy Rate The wholesale price an agent or ISO pays the processor. Everything charged above it is the seller's margin on your account. also: wholesale rate, cost rate, agent buy rate
C
- Card-Present vs Card-Not-Present Card-present means the card was physically read. Card-not-present means it wasn't. The second costs more and puts fraud liability on you. also: CP, CNP, card not present
- Cash Discount Posting card prices and offering a lower price for cash. Legal everywhere - but only if it is genuinely a discount, not a fee in disguise. also: cash discount program, discount for cash
- CFPB Rule 1033 and Open Banking The consumer financial data access rule, enjoined by a federal court and currently being rewritten, with data access fees the central fight. also: Section 1033, personal financial data rights, open banking rule
- Change-of-Control Clause What happens to your contract when the other side is acquired, which in payments happens constantly. also: change of control, acquisition clause
- Chargeback A forced reversal of a card sale, initiated by the issuing bank at the cardholder's request, that pulls funds back out of your account. also: card dispute reversal
- Chargeback Fee What your processor charges you when a customer disputes a sale - typically $15 to $50, and you pay it whether or not you win. also: dispute fee, chargeback handling fee, representment fee
- Chargeback Ratio The measured rate of disputes against transactions or volume, and the number that decides whether you keep your merchant account. also: dispute ratio, chargeback rate
- Chargeback Reason Codes Network-assigned codes that classify why a dispute was filed and dictate exactly what evidence can win it. also: dispute reason codes, Visa reason codes, Mastercard reason codes
- Clawback The right of a processor to recover losses, bonuses or advances from an agent's residuals or, in the worst drafting, personally. also: chargeback liability, loss recoupment, bonus recapture
- Clover Fiserv's small business POS platform and the most widely deployed smart terminal in America. Where you buy it determines whether you can ever leave. also: Clover POS, Clover Flex, Clover Mini
- Convenience Fee A flat fee for paying through a non-standard channel, like phone or web when your normal channel is in person. Very narrow rules. also: alternative channel fee, payment channel fee
- Corner Post and the Regulation II Challenge A federal court vacated the debit interchange cap in August 2025, stayed its own ruling, and the Eighth Circuit heard argument in May 2026 with a decision pending. also: Corner Post v. Board of Governors, Reg II vacatur
- Credit Card Competition Act (CCCA) A bill, not a law, that would require large issuers to enable a second unaffiliated network on credit cards. also: CCCA, S. 3623, credit routing mandate
- Cross-Border / International Service Assessment An extra network fee when your customer's card was issued outside the US. Small percentage, real money in a tourist market. also: ISA, international service assessment, cross-border fee
- Currency Conversion Fee The cost of converting between currencies at the point of sale - and, in the DCC version, a revenue share the merchant can earn on it. also: DCC, dynamic currency conversion, FX fee
D
- Dana's Railroad Supply v. Bondi The 2015 Eleventh Circuit decision holding Florida's credit card surcharge ban unconstitutional under the First Amendment. also: Dana's Railroad Supply v. Attorney General Florida, 807 F.3d 1235
- Debit Routing Your right to choose which network carries a debit transaction, and the cost saving most small merchants never enable. also: least-cost routing, PIN debit routing, network routing choice
- Dharma Merchant Services A small, ethics-forward processor that publishes interchange-plus pricing openly and has spent 15+ years refusing to sell contracts or leases. also: Dharma, Dharma MS
- Discount Rate The all-in percentage a merchant pays to accept a card - interchange plus network assessments plus the processor's cut, expressed as one number. also: merchant discount rate, MDR, merchant discount
- Discover The fourth US card network, now owned by Capital One. Small volume for most merchants, but it has real quirks worth knowing. also: Discover Network, Discover Global Network, DFS
- Dispute The full cardholder challenge lifecycle, from an initial inquiry through chargeback, representment, pre-arbitration and arbitration. also: cardholder dispute, retrieval request, inquiry
- Downgrade When a transaction misses the requirements for its best interchange category and gets billed at a more expensive one. Often preventable. also: interchange downgrade, EIRF, Standard interchange
- Dual Pricing Displaying two genuine prices - one for cash, one for card - on everything. The only model that legitimately covers debit. also: two-price model, dual price program, cash and card pricing
- Dunning The process of recovering failed recurring payments — retries, reminders, updated cards. It's revenue recovery disguised as a billing chore. also: decline recovery, failed payment recovery, retry logic
- Durbin Amendment The 2010 Dodd-Frank provision capping debit interchange at large issuers and guaranteeing merchants a routing choice. also: Durbin, Section 1075 Dodd-Frank, 15 U.S.C. 1693o-2
E
- Early Termination Fee (ETF) What you're charged for leaving before your contract term ends. Sometimes a flat amount, sometimes a formula that estimates lost profit. also: ETF, cancellation fee, liquidated damages
- Effective Rate Total fees divided by total card volume. The single number that tells you what card acceptance actually costs you, regardless of how it was quoted. also: effective rate calculation, true cost of acceptance, all-in rate
- Elavon U.S. Bank's merchant acquirer. Boring in the best way, with the most transparent partner program of any major and zero published merchant pricing. also: Elavon Merchant Services, U.S. Bank merchant services, Monarch
- EMV & Magstripe EMV is the chip. Magstripe is the black stripe. Since the 2015 liability shift, taking a swipe when a chip was available makes fraud your problem. also: chip card, EMV liability shift, magstripe
- Equipment Lease A multi-year, usually non-cancellable agreement to rent a card terminal - frequently for several times what the hardware costs to buy. also: terminal lease, POS lease, non-cancellable lease
- Expressions Hair Design v. Schneiderman The 2017 Supreme Court decision holding that a no-surcharge law regulates speech, without deciding whether it survives First Amendment scrutiny. also: Expressions Hair Design, New York surcharge case
F
- FDUTPA (Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act) Florida's consumer protection statute, and the actual enforcement risk for a Florida merchant who does not disclose a fee properly. also: FDUTPA, Florida Chapter 501 Part II, Florida UDAP
- FedNow The Federal Reserve's instant payment rail, launched 2023. Same idea as RTP, publicly operated, and reaching smaller banks faster. also: FedNow Service, Federal Reserve instant payments
- FinCEN The Treasury bureau that administers anti-money-laundering rules and decides who counts as a money services business. also: Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
- Fiserv The biggest US merchant acquirer, owner of Clover and First Data, and in 2026 the most publicly troubled large player in payments. also: First Data, Fiserv Inc., CardConnect
- Flat-Rate Pricing One published rate for every card, like 2.6% + 10 cents. Predictable, genuinely simple, and expensive once you have real volume. also: simple pricing, one-rate pricing, Square-style pricing
- Florida Food Service Operational Charge Law (effective July 1, 2026) Florida law requiring restaurants to disclose any automatic non-tax charge on menus, websites, bills and receipts, effective July 1, 2026. also: Florida restaurant service charge law, operational charge disclosure
- Florida Statute 501.0117 Florida's credit card surcharge ban, still printed in the statutes but held unconstitutional by the Eleventh Circuit in 2015 and not enforced. also: Fla. Stat. 501.0117, Florida surcharge ban
- Form 1099-K Reporting The IRS information return processors file on your card and platform revenue, with the federal threshold restored to 20,000 dollars and 200 transactions. also: 1099-K, payment card and third party network transactions
- Free Equipment Placement Hardware provided at no upfront cost. It is real, and it is always paid for somewhere else - usually your rate, your term, or a clawback clause. also: free terminal, free POS, no-cost hardware program
- Friendly Fraud A cardholder disputes a transaction they actually authorized, whether by confusion, family use, or deliberate abuse. also: first-party fraud, first-party misuse, chargeback abuse
- Front-End vs Back-End Processor The front end authorizes your transaction in two seconds. The back end settles it, funds you, and produces your statement. also: front end processor, back end processor, authorization platform
- FTC Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees The federal junk fees rule, effective May 12, 2025, which covers only live-event ticketing and short-term lodging. also: junk fees rule, 16 CFR Part 464
- FTC Safeguards Rule A federal data security rule requiring a written information security program at businesses that are financial institutions under FTC jurisdiction. also: Safeguards Rule, GLBA Safeguards
- Funding Delay The gap between running a card and the money hitting your bank. Usually one to two business days - and sometimes very much longer. also: settlement delay, funding time, deposit delay
- Funding Hold A pause on your deposits imposed by your acquirer's risk team, usually triggered by a pattern that does not match your application. also: settlement hold, held funds, delayed funding
G
- Gateway Fee What you pay for the software that transmits card data from your website or virtual terminal to the processor. Usually a monthly fee plus per-transaction. also: payment gateway fee, gateway monthly, virtual terminal fee
- GENIUS Act The federal statute signed in July 2025 creating the first framework for payment stablecoin issuers, with rulemaking still incomplete. also: S.1582, payment stablecoin statute
- Global Payments The acquirer that swallowed TSYS, Heartland, EVO and now Worldpay — roughly 6 million locations and $3.7 trillion in annual volume. also: GPN, TSYS, Heartland
H
- Handheld / Pay-at-Table A wireless device servers carry to take orders and payment at the table. Turns tables faster, raises tips, and keeps the card in the guest's hand. also: pay at table, handheld POS, tableside payment
- Helcim A processor that publishes interchange-plus pricing openly with automatic volume discounts and no contract — rare, and worth knowing as a benchmark. also: Helcim Inc.
- High-Risk Merchant A classification driven by chargeback exposure, legal complexity or delivery timing that raises your pricing, slows approval and usually triggers a reserve. also: high risk merchant account, elevated risk merchant
- Holdback / Reserve Money your processor keeps from your settlements as protection against future chargebacks. Your revenue, held by someone else. also: merchant reserve, security reserve, upfront reserve
- Honor-All-Cards Rule and Acceptance Tiers The network rule requiring you to accept every card of a brand, which the preliminary 2026 settlement would replace with three declinable tiers. also: honor all cards, acceptance tiers, tier declining
I
- In re Payment Card Interchange Fee Litigation (MDL 1720) The long-running antitrust case against Visa and Mastercard over interchange, comprising two separate settlements that agents routinely confuse. also: MDL 1720, swipe fee litigation, interchange antitrust
- Instant Deposit Fee A percentage or flat fee to get your money in minutes instead of days. Convenient, occasionally worth it, and expensive as a habit. also: instant transfer fee, instant payout fee, same-day funding fee
- Interchange The slice of every card sale that goes to the bank that issued your customer's card. It is the biggest single cost in card acceptance. also: interchange fee, swipe fee, IC
- Interchange Optimization Deliberately changing how you accept and submit transactions so they qualify for cheaper interchange categories. Real savings, real work. also: interchange management, rate qualification management, downgrade remediation
- Interchange-Plus Pricing where interchange and network fees pass to you at actual cost and the processor's markup is stated as a separate, fixed number. also: cost-plus, interchange pass-through, IC+
- iPayment, Cynergy Data and the Leveraged ISO Trap The pattern in which a fast-growing ISO takes on debt against residuals, and the residuals prove less durable than the debt. also: iPayment, Cynergy Data, leveraged roll-up
- IRS / 1099-K Reporting Fee A charge for the 1099-K your processor is already legally required to file. Sometimes annual, sometimes monthly, always worth questioning. also: 1099-K fee, IRS reporting fee, annual tax reporting fee
- ISO / MSP The independent sales layer between you and the acquirer. ISO is Visa's term, MSP is Mastercard's, and they mean the same thing. also: Independent Sales Organization, Member Service Provider, merchant services agent
- Issuer The bank that gave your customer their card. It approves or declines every transaction and keeps the interchange you pay. also: issuing bank, card issuer, issuing side
- ISV & VAR ISVs build the software your business runs on. VARs resell and install other people's hardware and software. Both increasingly sell you payments. also: Independent Software Vendor, Value Added Reseller, ISV
K
- Kitchen Display System (KDS) Screens that replace kitchen tickets. Routes orders by station, times courses, and produces the throughput data most kitchens never look at. also: kitchen display, kitchen video system, KVS
- KYC (Know Your Customer) The identity verification your acquirer must perform on your business and its owners before you can accept cards. also: Know Your Customer, CIP, customer identification program
L
- Large Ticket Interchange Special low-percentage, high-per-item interchange categories for very large business-card transactions. Great for B2B, irrelevant for retail. also: large ticket, large ticket rate, high-value transaction interchange
- Level 2 Data Extra fields - PO number, sales tax, tax ID - passed with a commercial card transaction to earn cheaper interchange. Visa retired it in April 2026; Mastercard and American Express still run it. also: Level II, L2 data, enhanced data
- Level 3 Data Line-item detail passed with a commercial card sale - items, quantities, unit costs, shipping - that unlocks the cheapest B2B interchange available. On Visa it is now called Commercial Enhanced Data Program Product 3. also: CEDP, Commercial Enhanced Data Program, L3 data
M
- Markup The part of your processing cost that goes to your processor and agent. It's the only part that's negotiable, and usually the only part that's hidden. also: processor markup, spread, margin
- Mastercard The second-largest card network. Same structure as Visa: sets rules and interchange, keeps assessments, issues nothing and lends nothing. also: MasterCard, MC, Mastercard Incorporated
- Mastercard ECM and HECM Mastercard's excessive chargeback tiers, with count and ratio triggers and fines that escalate into six figures if left unresolved. also: Excessive Chargeback Merchant, High Excessive Chargeback Merchant, Mastercard excessive chargeback program
- Mastercard GMAP (Global Merchant Audit Program) Mastercard's restructured monitoring framework, reported effective April 1, 2027, adding new dispute categories and stepping excessive thresholds down through 2031. also: GMAP, Global Merchant Audit Program
- MATCH List (Terminated Merchant File) Mastercard's database of merchants terminated for cause, queried by acquirers at underwriting, with a standard five-year listing. also: MATCH, TMF, Terminated Merchant File
- Maverick Payments A private California acquirer built explicitly as an ISO-in-a-box: white-label platform, in-house underwriting, free sub-agent management. also: Maverick, Maverick Payments ISO in a box
- Merchant Account A specialized bank account that lets you accept cards. It's underwritten like credit, because the acquirer is lending you trust. also: merchant services account, card acceptance account, MID account
- Merchant Agreement The contract between you and the acquiring bank that governs your account, and the document almost nobody reads before signing. also: merchant processing agreement, MPA, card acceptance agreement
- Merchant Category Code (MCC) The four-digit code classifying what your business sells. It sets your interchange rates and can be wrong for years without anyone noticing. also: MCC, SIC code, merchant category
- Merchant Maverick The best-known merchant services review site. Genuinely useful, and affiliate-monetized — read it knowing both things. also: MerchantMaverick, merchant services review sites
- Merchant of Record The legal entity that appears on the customer's statement and owns the liability: chargebacks, refunds, sales tax and compliance. also: MoR, MOR, seller of record
- Merchant Statement The monthly document showing what you processed and what you were charged. The single most useful thing you own and the least read. also: processing statement, monthly statement, merchant processing statement
- MID & TID MID identifies your merchant account. TID identifies a specific terminal or lane under it. Both are on every statement and every support call. also: merchant ID, terminal ID, MID number
- Money Transmitter Licensing State licenses required to receive and transmit money on behalf of others, governed in Florida by Chapter 560 and administered by the Office of Financial Regulation. also: MTL, money services business licensing, Chapter 560 Florida
- Monthly Minimum A floor on what you pay each month. If your processing fees fall below it, you're billed the difference for nothing. also: minimum monthly fee, minimum discount, monthly minimum fee
N
- Nacha The private organization that writes and enforces the ACH Operating Rules — the rulebook behind direct deposit and bank debits. also: NACHA, National Automated Clearing House Association, ACH rules
- Nacha Fraud Monitoring Rules Nacha rules requiring risk-based ACH fraud monitoring, extended in June 2026 to essentially every business that originates ACH. also: Nacha risk management rules, ACH fraud monitoring, Phase 1 Phase 2
- Network Tokens & Account Updater Card credentials that stay valid when the card is reissued. They quietly recover revenue you'd otherwise lose to expired and replaced cards. also: network tokenization, account updater, card account updater
- Next-Day Funding Getting your deposit the business day after you batch. Often free, sometimes priced, and dependent on a cutoff time nobody tells you. also: next business day funding, accelerated funding, fast funding
- NFC & Contactless Tap instead of dip. Same EMV security, faster, and wallet payments layer tokenization on top so the real card number never reaches you. also: contactless payments, tap to pay, NFC
- NMI The independent payment gateway that powers thousands of ISOs and never sells to merchants directly — which is exactly why it matters. also: Network Merchants Inc, NMI Gateway, USAePay
- No-Surcharge Rules and Network Surcharge Caps Surcharging is governed by three separate layers: network rules, state law, and disclosure law, and the strictest one always wins. also: surcharge rules, credit card surcharge, 3 percent cap
- Non-Cash Adjustment A relabeled fee added to card sales. The name has no legal meaning - what matters is whether a fee was added to a posted price. also: NCA, non-cash charge, card processing adjustment
- Non-Solicit and Non-Compete Post-termination restrictions on soliciting merchants or competing, which Florida enforces if reasonable and tied to a legitimate business interest. also: non-solicitation clause, restrictive covenant, non-compete
- North A large, aggressive acquirer formerly called North American Bancard, with a documented merchant complaint record worth reading before you sign. also: North American Bancard, NAB, Payanywhere
- Northern Leasing and Equipment Lease Litigation The non-cancellable terminal lease model and the New York Attorney General case that produced a restitution award exceeding 680 million dollars. also: Northern Leasing Systems, non-cancellable equipment lease, POS micro-lease
O
- OFAC Screening Checking businesses, owners and sometimes customers against U.S. sanctions lists, a strict-liability obligation with no small business exemption. also: sanctions screening, SDN list screening, Office of Foreign Assets Control
- Open Banking The rules governing whether consumers can share their bank data with third parties. As of 2026 the US rule is enjoined and being rewritten. also: CFPB 1033, Section 1033, personal financial data rights
P
- P2PE Card data is encrypted inside the reader before it ever reaches your POS or network. Dramatically shrinks what a breach of your systems can expose. also: point-to-point encryption, end-to-end encryption, PCI P2PE
- Pay by Bank / A2A Customers pay straight from their bank account instead of a card. Cheaper for you, real in the UK, still about 1.5% of US transactions. also: account to account payments, A2A, open banking payments
- Payment Facilitator (PayFac) A company that holds one master merchant account and boards you as a sub-merchant underneath it. Square and Stripe work this way. also: PayFac, payfac, payment aggregator
- Payment Gateway The software layer that connects your website, invoice or virtual terminal to a processor. Cheap on the statement, expensive to leave. also: gateway, payment gateway service, online payment gateway
- Payment Terminal & Smart Terminal The device that reads the card. Traditional terminals just take payments; smart terminals run apps and are basically small Android computers. also: credit card terminal, smart terminal, card reader
- PayPal & Braintree The consumer wallet everyone has, plus Braintree, its developer-facing processor. Strong card-present rates, notorious account holds. also: Braintree, PayPal Zettle, Venmo
- Payroc A private, acquisitive Illinois acquirer built around the partner channel, with a purpose-built surcharging product for markets like Florida. also: Payroc WorldAccess, RewardPay Choice, Payroc Gateway
- PCI Compliance Fee A monthly charge for helping you meet card data security standards. Defensible if real services attach, pure margin if they don't. also: PCI program fee, data security fee, PCI service fee
- PCI DSS The card brands' contractual security standard for anyone who stores, processes or transmits cardholder data. also: Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, PCI compliance
- PCI DSS 4.0.1 The current version of the card data security standard, whose future-dated requirements became mandatory on March 31, 2025. also: PCI DSS v4.0.1, PCI 4.0
- PCI Non-Compliance Fee A monthly penalty for not finishing your annual security questionnaire. No service attaches. It is almost always avoidable in an afternoon. also: PCI non-validation fee, non-compliance surcharge
- PCI Non-Compliance Program The enforcement architecture behind PCI: a punitive monthly fee from your processor, and separately, card brand fines through your acquirer. also: PCI non-compliance fee, PCI non-validation fee, card brand PCI fines
- PCI Requirement 11.6.1 Requires a change and tamper detection mechanism on payment pages that alerts on unauthorized modification, evaluated at least weekly. also: 11.6.1, payment page tamper detection
- PCI Requirement 6.4.3 Requires merchants to inventory, justify, authorize and integrity-assure every script that loads on a payment page. also: 6.4.3, payment page script management
- Per-Transaction Fee A flat charge on every sale regardless of amount. Nearly invisible on big tickets, brutal on small ones. also: per-item fee, transaction fee, item rate
- Personal Guaranty A clause making you personally liable for your business's processing obligations, which survives the closing of the business. also: personal guarantee, PG
- Portfolio Attrition The rate at which merchants leave a processor's book each year. It drives portfolio value, which is why some processors make leaving expensive. also: merchant attrition, churn, runoff
- Portfolio Multiple What a merchant portfolio sells for, expressed as a multiple of net monthly residual. In 2026 that's roughly 28x to 46x. also: residual multiple, buyout multiple, valuation multiple
- POS System The software your business actually runs on. It decides your menu, your labor, your reporting — and increasingly, who processes your payments. also: point of sale, point-of-sale system, restaurant POS
- Priority Technology Holdings A publicly traded ISO-channel roll-up with three businesses: merchant acquiring, B2B payables and banking-as-a-service treasury. also: Priority, PRTH, Cynergy Data
- Prohibited and Restricted MCCs Merchant category codes that an acquirer will not board or will only board under registration, and the coding games that get merchants terminated. also: prohibited merchant category code, restricted MCC, MCC miscoding
R
- Recurring Billing Charging a stored payment method on a schedule. The most valuable thing a local business can add, and the most commonly overbought. also: subscription billing, auto-pay, membership billing
- Registered ISO vs Wholesale ISO vs Agent Three rungs of the sales ladder. They differ in who registers, who owns the merchant contract, and who eats the losses. also: sub-ISO, 1099 agent, wholesale ISO
- Regulation II The Federal Reserve rule implementing Durbin, setting the debit interchange cap and the routing requirements, currently under appeal. also: Reg II, 12 CFR Part 235, debit interchange standard
- Regulatory / Network Access Fee A fee named after something official. Some of it is a real network charge; a lot of it is markup borrowing the word 'regulatory.' also: network access fee, regulatory compliance fee, NABU fee
- Representment Re-presenting a disputed transaction to the issuer with compelling evidence, asking for the reversal to be reversed. also: chargeback rebuttal, second presentment, dispute response
- Reserve Money your acquirer holds from your settlements as collateral against future chargebacks, refunds and losses. also: merchant reserve, security reserve, reserve account
- Residual The monthly payment an agent earns from your account for as long as you keep processing. It is why merchant services is sold the way it is. also: residual income, monthly residual, trailing commission
- Residual Portfolio The collection of merchant accounts an agent or ISO earns from. It is a sellable financial asset, and you are a line item in it. also: merchant portfolio, book of business, residual book
- Residual Vesting The contract terms that decide whether your residual income survives the end of the relationship, or stops the day you do. also: residual perpetuity, lifetime residuals, vesting cliff
- Retrieval Request Fee A charge for responding to an issuer's request for a copy of a sales receipt - the step before a chargeback. also: ticket retrieval fee, copy request fee, transaction documentation request
- Revenue Split How the processor and the salesperson divide the money made on your account. It shapes who is motivated to keep you happy, and for how long. also: rev share, residual split, profit split
- Risk Fee A monthly or annual charge for the processor's risk monitoring. Sometimes it funds real underwriting. Often it funds nothing you can identify. also: risk assessment fee, underwriting fee, high-risk fee
- Rolling Reserve A percentage of every settlement withheld and released on a delay - typically 5-10% held for 90 to 180 days. also: rolling holdback, percentage reserve
- RTP (The Clearing House) The bank-owned instant payment network, live since 2017. Irrevocable, 24/7/365, up to $10 million per transaction. also: Real-Time Payments, RTP Network, The Clearing House
S
- SAQ Types (Self-Assessment Questionnaires) The short-form PCI validation documents; which one you use depends on how card data touches your systems, and it changes your workload enormously. also: SAQ A, SAQ B-IP, SAQ C-VT
- Service Fee A card brand program that lets government, education and utility merchants add a fee - including on debit. Registration required, most businesses ineligible. also: network service fee program, government service fee
- Shift4 / SkyTab The restaurant and hospitality specialist. Free hardware, $29.99 per terminal, aggressive growth — and almost no published pricing. also: SkyTab, Shift4 Dine, Shift4 Payments
- Sponsor Bank The card-network member bank that stands behind your merchant account. Its name is in the fine print, and it holds the ultimate liability. also: BIN sponsor, member bank, sponsoring bank
- SpotOn A restaurant POS that competes on human service and publishes real rate cards — with a two-year term hiding inside the free plan. also: SpotOn Restaurant, SpotOn POS, SpotOn Station
- Square (Block) The most transparent pricing in payments, no contracts, cheap hardware — and a flat rate that stops being cheap around $15-25K a month. also: Block, Square POS, Square Reader
- Stablecoin Payments Dollar-pegged digital tokens. Becoming real infrastructure for settlement in 2026, and still not an SMB acceptance story. also: stablecoins, USDC, Open USD
- Stablecoin Regulation and Merchant Acceptance The regulatory build-out that will determine whether stablecoin acceptance becomes a real small business payment method, still incomplete in 2026. also: stablecoin payments, stablecoin acceptance
- Statement Fee A monthly charge for producing your statement. It costs the processor almost nothing and is one of the most negotiable fees you carry. also: monthly service fee, account fee, paper statement fee
- Stax A subscription-pricing processor: pay a monthly membership, then pay interchange plus a few cents. Wins above roughly $10-11K a month. also: Stax Payments, Fattmerchant, subscription pricing
- Stripe The developer-first payments platform that runs a huge share of internet commerce and is building the rails for AI agent checkout. also: Stripe Payments, Stripe Connect, Stripe Terminal
- Subscription / Membership Pricing You pay a fixed monthly membership and get interchange at cost plus a small per-transaction fee. Excellent above a volume threshold, bad below it. also: membership pricing, wholesale pricing, zero-markup pricing
- Surcharge An extra fee added to a credit card sale to offset processing cost. Credit only, never debit, and heavily rule-bound. also: credit card surcharge, checkout fee, credit surcharge
- Synapse and Evolve Bank Collapse The 2024 middleware failure that froze roughly 200 million dollars of end-user funds and demonstrated how fast a sponsor bank problem reaches merchants. also: Synapse Financial Technologies, Evolve Bank & Trust, banking-as-a-service collapse
T
- Tap to Pay on Phone Your phone becomes the card reader. No dongle, no terminal. Table stakes in 2026, and a closer rather than a category. also: Tap to Pay on iPhone, SoftPOS, Tap to Pay on Android
- Telemarketing Sales Rule The FTC rule governing telemarketing, including required disclosures, misrepresentation prohibitions, calling restrictions and payment method limits. also: TSR, 16 CFR Part 310
- The 2026 Visa/Mastercard Injunctive Settlement The forward-looking rules and rates settlement that received preliminary approval in June 2026 and is under objection; nothing has changed yet. also: Rule 23(b)(2) settlement, swipe fee settlement 2026, interchange settlement
- The Four-Party Model Every card swipe involves four parties: cardholder, issuer, merchant, acquirer — with the network in the middle setting the rules. also: four corners model, four-party system, cardholder
- Tiered Pricing A pricing model that sorts your transactions into two to six buckets at rates your processor invents, then decides which bucket each sale lands in. also: bundled tiered pricing, three-tier pricing, qualified pricing
- Toast The restaurant POS everyone knows. Excellent software, mandatory proprietary processing, and the industry's sharpest pricing complaints. also: Toast POS, TOST, Toast Payments
- Tokenization Replacing a card number with a meaningless substitute. If your systems only hold tokens, a breach of your systems yields nothing worth stealing. also: payment tokenization, card vault, customer vault
V
- VDMP and VFMP (legacy Visa programs) Visa's former separate dispute and fraud monitoring programs, replaced by VAMP on April 1, 2025 but still quoted in stale sales material. also: Visa Dispute Monitoring Program, Visa Fraud Monitoring Program
- Virtual Terminal A web page where you type in a card number to charge it. Useful, expensive per transaction, and a fraud magnet if left unlocked. also: VT, web terminal, keyed entry portal
- Visa The largest card network. Visa doesn't lend you money or hold your merchant account, it sets the rules and moves the transaction. also: Visa Inc., Visa Network, VisaNet
- Visa Integrity Risk Program (VIRP) Visa's registration and oversight program for merchant categories that could facilitate illegal activity, in force since April 1, 2024. also: VIRP, Visa Integrity Risk Program, formerly GBPP
- Visa Third Party Agent Rules Network rules requiring acquirers to register and oversee the ISOs, agents and service providers that touch their merchants. also: TPA registration, Visa agent registration, Mastercard service provider registration
- Visa VAMP (Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program) Visa's consolidated fraud and dispute monitoring program, live since April 1, 2025, which scores acquirers and merchants on a single combined ratio. also: VAMP, Visa Acquirer Monitoring Program
W
- Wire Transfer The original same-day large-value rail. Fast, final, expensive, and the favorite target of business email compromise fraud. also: wire, Fedwire, CHIPS
- Wirecard The German payments company whose 1.9 billion euro cash balance never existed, collapsing in June 2020 after five years of ignored warnings. also: Wirecard AG, Markus Braun, Jan Marsalek
- Worldpay A global acquiring giant that's been sold three times in a decade and, as of January 2026, is part of Global Payments. also: Worldpay from FIS, Vantiv, Worldpay for Platforms