Acquiring Bank - a financial institution that provides merchant accounts to accept credit card payments over the Internet.

ASP - stands for Application Service Provider. An ASP is a provider of an application or service that is accessible over the Internet. ASPs often store the application on their in- house servers and allow customers to access or "rent" the service on a monthly or annual basis. NOTE: ASP can also stand for Active Server Page. This is a Microsoft technology that enables web authors to create dynamic web pages.

AVS - stands for Address Verification System. A fraud protection service created by Visa and MasterCard that checks a shopper's billing address against the existing address record for the shopper that is currently on file with Visa and MasterCard. AVS returns a code that indicates how well the addresses match.

CardHolder Bank - the bank that issues the end customer's credit card.

CGI - stands for Common Gateway Interface. This is a technical term used to describe one way in which a Web browser can send information back to a Web server to do some useful task with the information. For example, if you were to have a form on your Web page to collect customer information such as name, address, phone, etc., you might use CGI to interface the Web browser and the Web server to so that the server can manipulate the data, store the information in a database, or whatever task is needed on a server level.

Chargeback - a request by the credit card holder or the credit card issuer to reverse a disputed purchase. Acquiring banks usually charge substantial fees for each chargeback ($10.00 to $35.00 per occurrence).

CRM - stands for Customer Relationship Management. An integrated information system that is used to plan, schedule, and control the presales and postsales activities in an organization.

CSP - stands for Commerce Service Provider. A CSP is a provider of e-commerce solutions or applications. This could entail a provider of real-time credit card processing services, or someone that provides a means of collecting orders over the Internet.

Discount Rate or % - this discount percentage is often used when speaking of merchant account credit card acceptance rates and fees. The "discount" percentage is a percentage that is taken out of each credit card sale by the merchant bank (thus "discounting" the merchant's actual sale total). Discount percentage fees for Visa and MasterCard vary between merchant account providers, but are typically between 2.30% to 7% of the sale amount. Discount percentage fees for AMEX and Discover fluctuate based on the merchant's business history and income.

Domain Name - this term is used to describe an alphanumeric name that is associated with a Web site. An example would be yahoo.com. Yahoo.com is a domain name that you type into your Web browser software to bring up a page with Yahoo!. In another example, http://www.aol.com/bob/smith/merchant, the domain name would be aol.com as this is the name that identifies the primary Web entity (or Web servers) to bring up. Domain names do NOT include the www part. So, www.yahoo.com is NOT the domain name, only the yahoo.com portion is.

ERP - stands for Enterprise Resource Planning. An integrated information system that serves all departments within an enterprise. Evolving out of the manufacturing industry, ERP implies the use of packaged software rather than proprietary software written by or for one customer. An ERP system can include software for manufacturing, order entry, accounts receivable and payable, general ledger, purchasing, warehousing, transportation and human resources.

Gateway - a gateway is a secure connection to the banking networks that is needed to facilitate all credit card transactions sent through the Internet. A gateway is basically an intermediary that provides Internet merchants with a means of communicating with bank processing networks.

HTML - stands for HyperText Markup Language. This is the language that is used to write web pages. The language consists of "tags" that tell the Web browser (Internet Explorer, Netscape, AOL, etc.) how to display a page, formatting constraints, colors, fonts, and more that are seen on a Web page.

ISP - stands for Internet Service Provider. ISPs provide connectivity to the Internet such as dial-up modem access, leased lines, T1's, T3's, fiber connections and more.

MID - stands for Merchant Identification number. This is a number that is unique to the merchant that identifies them as able to facilitate credit card transactions.

Monthly Minimum - this term is often used when speaking of merchant account credit card acceptance rates and fees. Monthly minimum refers to the minimum amount of fees that the merchant must pay in order to accept credit cards from their customers. This means that after adding up all the fees charged by the bank from discount percentages and per transaction charges, if the fees are less than the monthly minimum amount, then that monthly minimum amount is charged to the merchant. If the amount of fees is more than the monthly minimum amount, then the larger amount is incurred by the merchant.

MOTO Account - stands for Mail Order Telephone Order account. This means that a merchant's primary means of accepting credit card orders is done either by mail orders or telephone orders or Internet orders and the merchant usually does NOT receive a "wet" signature for the transaction. MOTO accounts usually command higher rates and fees due to an increased risk of fraudulent transactions (because there is no in-person contact or "wet" signature).

Per Transaction Fee - this term is often used when speaking of merchant account credit card acceptance rates and fees. This fee is charged on a per transaction basis to the merchant by the merchantÕs bank. Per transaction fees for Visa and MasterCard transactions vary between merchant account providers, but are typically between $0.25 and $1.00 per transaction. Per transaction fees for AMEX and Discover fluctuate based on the merchant's business history and income.

Sales Force Automation - An SFA package automates the sales activities within an organization and usually provides functions such as contact management, note and information sharing, quick proposal and presentation generation, product configurators, calendars, and to-do lists.

SET - stands for Secure Electronic Transaction protocol. This is a relatively new protocol standard for electronic commerce and is currently used most by banks.

Settlement - the process by which the credit card companies (Visa, MC, AMEX, etc.) transfer funds between a cardholder's account at the cardholder's bank and a merchant's account at the acquiring bank. In the case of a refund, the process is reversed.

SSL - stands for Secure Sockets Layer protocol. This is the Internet standard for sending information over the Web securely.

Statement Fee - this term is often used when speaking of merchant account credit card acceptance rates and fees. A statement fee is the cost the bank is charging the merchant to print out and mail a monthly statement regarding credit card acceptance activity.

TID - stands for Terminal Identification number. This number usually accompanies a Merchant Identification Number (MID) and identifies who the gateway provider is. The MID and TID combined allow a merchant's credit card transactions to be routed properly.

Thin Client - a technical term sometimes used in lieu of "Web browser".

URL - stands for Uniform Resource Locator. This is basically the entire Web address that is needed to reach a destination on the Web. For example, the URL for this web page is http://www.geocities.com/mr2000mt/ecommerce.html

These terms were taken from the following site for the use of reference in this site :