ACH is short for Automated Clearing House. When you send money from one bank account to another, you can do it through bank wire or ACH. Think of ACH as an electronic payment from one bank account to another. ACH payments are not guaranteed; that is, they must clear, much like a check. ACH is useful as an alternative to accepting a credit card.

A set of rules and protocols that tells separate software programs how to communicate with one another.

An authorization is the initial request a merchant makes for a customer’s issuing bank to release funds for payment.

A batch is a collection of transactions, usually a single day’s worth. Batch processing refers to closing or settling an entire batch of transactions at one time.

The authorized user of a credit card who has established a line of credit (e.g., a typical customer), and is financially responsible for transactions completed using the card.

The process of acquiring the account information required for processing a payment. This occurs by swiping a credit or debit card through a card reader, inserting the card into a reader or by manually keying in the information.

A three- or four-digit number that is printed on a card to verify its authenticity. The “2” refers to the printed code on the card. (CVV1 is encoded on the magnetic stripe of the card.)

Merchants that accept credit card transactions must meet or exceed regulations set by the local government, federal government, the card associations, and the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI SSC).

A payment card that is issued by a bank and used by an individual to purchase merchandise or services on credit.

Technology designed to allow merchants to access encrypted customer payment data without exposing themselves to potential security breaches. Each stored card or bank account information is encrypted and tokenized for future use.

Debit cards let buyers pay for goods and services with funds from their checking account and are an important part of any merchant’s business. Debit cards give consumers more flexibility in their payment options.

Authorizes someone to collect payments from a bank account when they are due.

A form of digital payment that serves the same function as a physical check. When a merchant accepts an electronic check payment, the merchant receives the specified funds directly from a customer's checking account.

The process of translating data into secret code (encoding) to ensure secure transmission. An effective way to help ensure data security, it is also referred to as end-to-end encryption.

Any illicit method used to access or use another person’s cardholder data.

A payment processing solution that protects cardholder data during the payment transaction process.

A bank or financial institution that is a licensed member of a credit card network. It provides cardholders with a line of credit for purchases or cash advances, and is responsible for reimbursing an acquirer for purchases made by the cardholder. The issuing bank then bills the cardholder.

Processing payment card transactions from a mobile device or smartphone.

Stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards, a set of requirements established by the credit card networks to protect cardholder information and reduce the risk of data theft. The standards apply to you, merchant account providers, issuing banks and the credit card networks. Meeting these requirements is known as being PCI compliant.

A company appointed by a merchant to handle transactions from various channels, such as credit card, debit card, ACH & eCheck from acquiring banks.

The return of funds back to the originating card or bank account. Refunds are available after funds have settled and take standard funding time to be returned.

Occurs when a depositing bank cannot validate the banking information or receives an error when attempting to deposit funds via ACH. This typically will take 5-7 business days from the date of the transaction. Funds will be pulled from the merchant account and returned to the customer.

A void cancels a transaction that has been recorded for settlement, but has not yet been settled.