Merchant Account Terminology

• Merchant Account
  This is an account set up with a bank to process credit card orders from customers.

• Setup Fee
  An initial fee paid to the Merchant Service Provider for establishment of an account and for processing and reporting tools.

• Discount Rate
  A percentage of each transaction that the merchant is charged by the Merchant Service Provider for facilitating a credit card transaction.

• Transaction Fee
  A small charge paid to the processing network (e.g., Visa/MasterCard) for use of their system, for each transaction processed.

• Monthly Minimum Fee
  A minimum amount the merchant must pay the Merchant Service Provider every month. It does not apply if the combination of Transaction Fees and Discount Fees exceeds the minimum amount.

• Statement Fee
  This is a fee charged to the merchant by the bank or Merchant Service Provider for preparing and sending out monthly statements and reports.

• Payment Gateway
  An online system for real-time charging of credit cards when a customer places an order. Normally requires a merchant account.

• Real-Time Processing
  This method of credit card processing authorizes and charges the customer's credit card at the time of purchase.

• Shopping Cart
  A piece of software installed on an online vendor's web space used to produce a shopping system. This generally means product pages, some sort of an online "basket" and a way for the customer to add, remove and modify product selections and to check out when they are done shopping.

• SSL
  Stands for Secure Socket Layer. It's a protocol for transferring data between a web site user and a web site. When a web site uses SSL (by using a Secure Server) data sent to and from the web space is encrypted to prevent it being read in transit over the Internet.

• Secure Server
  A Secure Server uses an SSL certificate. It is generally a piece of web space that can only be dealt with by using SSL ensuring that data transferred between the web space and the browser is encrypted.