The last thing you want to do as a merchant is enter into a contract without understanding some key words. This Total-Apps Merchant Account Help page is just a start on helping you understand some of the terminology in our industry.

ACH-Automated Clearing House

This is an abbreviation standing for automated clearing house. It’s the United States system of electronic systems. It’s easiest to look at ACH as the electronic transfer of money from one account to another. Most companies offer ACH options of some kind. Normally when you pay utilities or you car payment , you are using the ACH system. As a business owner, Total-Apps ACH services can give those same payment options to your clients.

Authorization Code

This is the term given to the process of securing and validating funds from your customers credit cards. When your customer either purchases online or swipes their credit card information, that information is sent to their credit card company. If funds are are available an authorization number is sent back to guarantee those funds for up to 72 hours. As a merchant if you run on an authorization based processing model, you will want to make sure and settle those transactions when you ship the good or services have been performed. 

Authorization Fee (Transaction Fee)

This is the fee charged every time there is a communication between your terminal or payment gateway and your processing bank. Think of it as a toll road. You pay a couple pennies to use it every time. 

Discount

This is the percentage of your transaction that is charged as a Fee by Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover for allowing you to accept cards on their behalf. This number various based on the type of card your customer is using. Its easier to think of discount in basis points. so if your rate is 2.19% for example on a transaction you are really basing 219 basis points. These fees cover the infrastructure costs of allowing the credit card processing industry to function. 


There are other terms credit card processing companies use, but hopefully this merchant account help page can start to let you understand a little. To learn more visit our  Total-Apps Glossary. it's also important to know that different banks call these items different by different names, so if you are ever confused, just ask them.


Wanna learn more about our space, then just ask! Inquire today and one of our merchant account help specialists will be there guide you.