Glossary
Introduction
To find your way into processing online transactions effectively requires gaining a lot of knowledge. Our glossary will help you greatly with this task, as it breaks down the most important industry terms in digestible bits.
2. List of terms
| Term | Description | Further Reading |
|---|---|---|
| 3-D Secure |
A security measure against fraud for online payments with credit cards. When paying online, your customers are redirected to their issuer during the payment process. They need to identify themselves as the rightful owners of the credit card used for the payment. The 3-D Secure identification process is the equivalent to the PIN number of a credit card. With the introduction of the SCA guidelines, 3-D Secure is generally mandatory for online transactions. 3-D Secure is known under various commercial names such as (3D-Secure, EMV 3D-Secure) |
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| EMV 3D Secure | ||
| Acquirer / acquiring bank |
A bank that is your acceptance partner for online payments. A contract with an acquirer enables you to activate payment methods you want to offer your customers. |
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| Authorisation |
Your request via one of our integration methods to reserve (that is, block) funds temporarily on a credit card. To receive the funds eventually, you have to capture them in a separate request. Alternatively, you can cancel authorisations instead of capturing them. Requesting transactions in two steps (authorisation > capture) is common practice for goods / services that are not delivered immediately after they are ordered. For example, Hotels authorise funds when customers reserve a room. Once the customers have used the room and checked out, only then will the hotel capture the funds. If customers do not show up after a reservation, hotels will cancel the funds instead or capture only a part of the reserved funds. |
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| Cancellation |
Your request via one of our integration methods to de-block previously authorised funds on a credit card. The de-blocked funds can then be authorised for other purchases |
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| Challenge flow |
One of two possible scenarios of a 3-D Secure authentication process. The cardholder must proactively proof that s/he is the rightful owner of the credit card s/he is about to use. Hence, the payment flow is interrupted: The cardholder has to authenticate her/himself according to the SCA principle. |
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| Chargeback (fee) |
The issuer’s request to an acquirer for paying back funds to a customer whose credit card was used in a previous purchase. Chargebacks happen if a cardholder considers a payment to a merchant unjustified due to fraud (misuse of her / his credit card) or a commercial dispute (customer is unsatisfied with the quality of the purchased goods/services or did not receive them at all) |
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| (Data) capture |
Your request via one of our integration methods to transfer authorised funds to your acquirer and to receive them eventually. It still takes up to several days until your receive the money from your acquirer |
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| Direct Sale / 1 step payment |
The combination of authorisation and capture in one operation. The funds on the credit card are immediately booked to be transferred to your acquirer. It still takes up to several days until you receive the money |
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| Frictionless flow |
One of two possible scenarios of a 3-D Secure authentication process. The merchant has provided enough data about the cardholder in the transaction request itself, so the cardholder’s issuer considers the risk of a fraudulent use of the credit card in question low. Hence, the payment flow is not interrupted: The cardholder will not have to proof that s/he is the rightful owner of the credit card s/he is about to use |
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| Gateway / Payment gateway | ||
| Hosted Checkout Page |
One of our integration methods. You send your customers from the webshop to our secure payment portal for entering credit card data. Very low PCI DSS requirements, as you do not have to manage sensitive data at all |
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| Hosted Tokenization Page |
One of our integration methods. Your merge seamlessly a payment form hosted on our platform with your webshop to create (temporary) token from your customers’ credit cards. In a second step, you use this token to process transactions via Server-to-server.
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| Integration (method) |
Possible ways for you to link a webshop to our platform and to use our service.
We offer the following integration modes. You can use them independently and simultaneously |
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| Issuer |
The bank issuing the credit cards to customers for (online) shopping |
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| Maintenance operation |
A follow-up action on an already existing transaction such as a capture/cancellation |
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| Merchant Id |
See PSPID |
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| MID |
Your unique identifier - also known as "VP Number" - you have received from your acquirer. This is (in most cases) a (alpha)numeric character string. When configuring a payment method for you, we add this MID to your PSPID you wish to use for transaction processing. Our platform uses the MID to channel your transaction requests for this payment method to your acquirer |
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| Merchant Portal |
The portal on our platform to login to your PSPID. The Merchant Portal is where you configure necessary settings to process transactions. |
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| Mobile/Client Integration |
One of our integration methods. You create your own mobile payment app using one of our Client SDKs. |
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| Partial capture / cancellation |
See capture/cancellation Instead of processing the full amount in a capture/cancellation maintenance operation, only a part of the full amount is captured/cancelled. Depending on how the merchant requests this partial maintenance operation, the transaction is left open for further partial maintenance operations until the full amount is processed |
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| Payment Service Provider |
A company that offers technical solutions to you to perform online payments. |
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| PCI DSS |
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard is a ruleset to guarantee maximum data security for card holders. If you want to do online transactions, you must meet their requirements. Depending on the integration method, you must meet different requirements. |
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| Platform | ||
| PSPID |
Your account on our platform. The Payment Service Provider ID is the your link between your webshop, your acquirer and your customers' banks (issuers):
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| SCA / Strong Customer Authentication |
The integral part of the 3-D Secure authentication process. It requires cardholders to authenticate themselves with at least two of the three methods:
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| Settlement |
The process of transferring funds from the issuer to the acquirer after a successful online transaction. Depending on the payment method / acquirer, this process might take several hours or even days. |
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| Server-to-server |
One of our integration methods. |
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| Status |
Every transaction on our platform has a status. It indicates whether it was successful / rejected / refunded etc. It represents the transaction’s station in the transaction life cycle. |
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| Token |
A credit card profile safely stored on our platform. Instead of storing the card by yourself, you only use an identifier or token pointing to this profile for processing transactions. Very useful for
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| VP Number |
See MID |