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Glossary

Glossary of payments terms

A–Z definitions of the terms used across APT Commerce.

A C D E I K M N P R S T V

A

Acquirer: A bank or financial institution that processes card payments on behalf of merchants.
AVS: Address Verification Service. Compares billing address provided at checkout against what the issuer has on file.
Authorization: A request to the cardholder's issuer to reserve funds for a transaction. Settled separately by capture.

C

Capture: The step that converts an authorized but uncaptured transaction into a settled transaction.
Chargeback: A forced reversal of a card transaction initiated by the cardholder through their issuer.
CIT: Customer-Initiated Transaction. Cardholder is present and consents to the charge.
CVV / CVC: Card Verification Value. The 3- or 4-digit code on the back of a card used for card-not-present transactions.

D

Decline: A failed authorization. Categorized as soft, hard, risk, or gateway.
Dispute: A cardholder's formal challenge of a transaction. Resolved via evidence (representment) or arbitration.

E

Ethoca: A Mastercard-owned alert network that surfaces disputes early so merchants can refund before they become chargebacks.

I

Interchange: The fee an acquirer pays the issuer on every card transaction. Set by the card networks.
ISO: Independent Sales Organization. Resells acquirer services, often manages a portfolio of merchants.
Issuer: The bank that issued a payment card to a cardholder.

K

KYC: Know Your Customer. Identity verification required during merchant onboarding.

M

Mandate: A network rule (Visa, Mastercard) governing how stored credentials may be used.
MID: Merchant ID. The identifier assigned by an acquirer to a merchant account.
MIT: Merchant-Initiated Transaction. Cardholder is not present; references a prior CIT.

N

NACHA: The body that operates and rules the ACH network in the US.
NOC: Notification of Change. ACH return-like message instructing the originator to update routing or account info.

P

PayFac: Payment Facilitator. An entity that aggregates merchants under a single master account.

R

RDR: Rapid Dispute Resolution (Verifi). Auto-refunds eligible Visa disputes before they become chargebacks.
Return code: Rxx code returned by the receiving bank when an ACH debit cannot be completed.

S

Settlement: The process of moving funds from the issuer to the merchant's bank account.
Stored credential: A payment method saved for reuse with the cardholder's consent.

T

TID: Terminal ID. Identifies a specific physical or virtual point-of-sale terminal.

V

Verifi: Visa-owned alert and dispute deflection network (CDRN, RDR).