- Acquirer
- The financial institution that processes card payments on behalf of the merchant and settles the funds into the merchant's account. Your processor usually arranges acquiring for you — the acquirer is who actually moves the money.
- Authorization
- The real-time check that a card has funds or credit available; it holds the amount but does not move money. Capture and settlement complete the transfer later.
- Basis point
- One-hundredth of a percent: 100 basis points = 1%. Processors quote markups in basis points to keep small percentages readable.
- Batch (settlement batch)
- The group of authorized transactions a terminal submits together, usually at day's end, to be settled. Missing the batch cutoff can delay funding by a business day.
- Card network (card brand)
- Visa, Mastercard, Interac, and others — they set the rules and the interchange tables everyone else follows. They don't bill you directly; their fees arrive as pass-through line items on your statement.
- Chargeback
- A disputed transaction the cardholder's bank reverses out of your account, usually with a fee attached. High chargeback ratios can get a merchant account flagged or closed.
- Discount rate
- The percentage portion of the fee charged on each transaction, before any per-transaction amount is added. In "2.65% + $0.10", the discount rate is 2.65%.
- Dual pricing
- Showing a cash price and a (higher) card price so card users cover the processing cost. Legal in Canada when disclosed at the point of sale under card-brand rules.
- Effective rate
- Total processing fees divided by total card volume for a period — the single number that lets you compare any two pricing models. See how processors' published rates compare in the processor rate guide.
- Flat-rate pricing
- One fixed percentage plus a fixed per-transaction amount on every sale, regardless of the card's actual interchange cost. Simple to understand — and usually the most expensive model once volume grows.
- Interchange
- The fee the card-issuing bank takes from each transaction, set by the card networks and regulated/capped in Canada. On interchange-plus plans it is passed through at cost — it is not processor profit.
- Interchange-plus
- A pricing model that passes interchange and network fees through at cost and adds a fixed processor markup (for example, interchange + 0.30% + 8¢). Transparent, because the markup is the only part the processor controls.
- Issuer
- The bank or institution that issued the customer's card — and ultimately receives the interchange portion of your fees.
- Keyed-in (card-not-present)
- A transaction typed in manually instead of tapped, inserted, or swiped — priced higher because fraud risk is higher. Includes phone orders and most online sales.
- Markup
- Whatever the processor adds on top of interchange and network fees: the negotiable part of your bill. Junk fees hide here — which is exactly what the statement-reading guide teaches you to spot.
- PCI DSS
- The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard: the security rules any business handling card data must follow. The less card data touches your systems, the smaller your compliance burden (see the PCI scope guide).
- Statement fee
- A flat monthly line item for producing your statement. Common — but sometimes padded, or duplicated under other names.
- Surcharging
- Adding a fee to credit-card transactions to recover processing costs; permitted in Canada within card-brand limits with proper disclosure. See also dual pricing.
- Tiered pricing
- The old "qualified / mid-qualified / non-qualified" model where transactions are sorted into rate buckets defined by the processor. Savings claims are hard to verify on tiered plans, because the buckets are the processor's invention.
- Tokenization
- Replacing card numbers with non-sensitive tokens in your systems, so a breach yields nothing usable. A properly tokenized setup keeps card data out of your POS entirely.
Know the words — now read your own statement.
Our statement guide maps each of these terms to the line items where fees actually hide. Or skip the homework: send us 3–6 months of statements and we'll decode them for free.
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