Topic
Payments
How merchants get paid: cards, acquiring, fees, and the systems behind the tap.
Essays
Glossary
3-D Secure
3-D Secure is the protocol that lets a card issuer check the payer during an online card payment. EMV 3-D Secure shares transaction and device data so low-risk payments pass quietly, while higher-risk ones trigger a challenge such as a one-time passcode or biometrics.
Acquirer
An acquirer is the licensed payment service provider that contracts with a merchant to accept and process card payments and transfer the funds to the merchant. It is the merchant's counterpart to the cardholder's issuer, and the party that stands behind the merchant's card payments.
Authorisation
An authorisation is the card issuer's approval of a payment request. It is a yes or no on that card, for that amount, at that moment. It is not the transfer of money.
BANCOMAT
BANCOMAT is Italy's domestic debit brand and circuit, run by BANCOMAT S.p.A. Italians say bancomat for the debit card. The older names PagoBANCOMAT (the card) and BANCOMAT Pay (the app) are being unified under the single BANCOMAT identity, and many cards are co-badged with an international scheme.
Bizum
Bizum is a Spanish payment service backed by Spanish banks. It lets people send money from a mobile phone using the recipient's phone number, pay online by approving in their bank app, and, since a gradual rollout in 2026, pay in person by holding the phone near the terminal.
Blended pricing
Blended pricing charges a merchant one headline rate, or a few, that cover interchange, scheme fees and the acquirer's margin together. It is simple to read but hides the split. In the EU, acquirers must offer itemised charges by default, so blended pricing needs the merchant's written request.
Buy now, pay later
Buy now, pay later is a form of credit that lets a buyer receive goods or services now and pay over time, often in instalments. In the EU, the revised Consumer Credit Directive (EU) 2023/2225 brings buy-now-pay-later schemes within its scope for consumers.
Capture
Capture is the step where a merchant confirms an approved card payment and submits it for clearing, so the money can move. Authorisation reserves the amount. Capture is what makes it collectable.
Card scheme
A card scheme is the set of rules, standards and technical processes that lets cards issued by one bank work at merchants served by another. It licenses issuers and acquirers, sets the rules for every payment and charges scheme fees for running the network.
Card-not-present
A card-not-present transaction is one where the card or the cardholder is not physically at the merchant: online, by phone or with a saved card. Online payments the customer starts generally require strong customer authentication; phone orders and merchant-initiated payments are generally treated as outside it.
Card-present
A card-present transaction is one where the card and the cardholder are physically at the merchant's premises or acceptance device, read by chip, tap or swipe. It is generally lower risk than card-not-present.
Cartes Bancaires (CB)
Cartes Bancaires, or CB, is France's domestic card scheme, run by the Groupement des Cartes Bancaires CB, an economic interest grouping created in 1984. It sets the operating rules of the CB scheme for physical cards and cards held in a mobile wallet.
Chargeback
A chargeback is a card payment that the cardholder's issuer returns to the merchant's acquirer after a dispute, pulling the money back unless the merchant successfully contests it. Visa's rules call it a dispute.
Co-badging
Co-badging is when one card carries two or more payment brands, typically a domestic scheme plus an international one. Under Article 8 of the EU Interchange Fee Regulation the card cannot be locked to one brand: the merchant may set a default, and the payer can override it.
Contactless limit
The contactless limit is the amount above which a tap payment needs extra authentication. Under the EU's SCA rules, the card issuer may skip it for taps up to €50, until €150 in total or five taps in a row have built up since the last time it was applied.
EMV
EMV is the global set of specifications for chip cards and the terminals that read them, covering both insert and contactless payments. It is managed by EMVCo, which is owned by American Express, Discover, JCB, Mastercard, UnionPay and Visa.
Flat-rate pricing
Flat-rate pricing charges a merchant one percentage on every card payment, whatever the card, often with no fixed fee per payment. It is the simplest bill to read, but the rate is set for an average card mix, so cheap cards help pay for expensive ones.
girocard
The girocard is Germany's leading debit card, a product of the German Banking Industry Committee. Payments and cash withdrawals are debited from the cardholder's bank account. Most girocards carry a second, international brand so they also work abroad.
IC++
IC++ is a pricing model in which the acquirer passes the interchange fee and the card scheme fees through to the merchant at cost, then adds a separate processing fee. The merchant sees each component, so costs move with the card mix.
iDEAL
iDEAL is the Dutch online payment method where the customer pays directly through their own bank. The Dutch Payments Association says it accounts for 70% of Dutch e-commerce transactions, and that every iDEAL merchant will switch to Wero by the end of 2027 at the latest.
Interchange fee
The interchange fee is what the merchant's acquirer pays the cardholder's issuing bank on each card payment. Where both banks are in the EU, and through the EEA Agreement also Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, it is capped at 0.2% for consumer debit and 0.3% for consumer credit.
Interchange Fee Regulation
The Interchange Fee Regulation is Regulation (EU) 2015/751. It caps interchange fees at 0.2% for consumer debit cards and 0.3% for consumer credit cards, on card payments where both the payer's and the payee's payment service provider are in the EU or EEA.
Issuer
An issuer is the payment service provider that gives a customer a card and carries the cardholder relationship. It approves or declines each payment, and it receives the interchange fee that the merchant's acquirer pays on every transaction.
Merchant service charge
The merchant service charge is the total fee a merchant pays its acquirer for card payments. It is made up of the interchange fee, the scheme fees and the acquirer's own margin, and EU rules require acquirers to itemise it unless the merchant asks for one blended rate.
Open banking
Open banking is the common name for the PSD2 framework that lets authorised or registered third-party providers access a customer's payment account data or initiate payments from it, with the customer's permission, through an interface the bank must provide.
Payment link
A payment link is a URL a merchant sends to a customer, by message or email, that opens a hosted page where the customer pays. It lets a business take card payments with no terminal or website checkout.
Payment service provider
A payment service provider is any authorised firm that provides payment services, including banks, payment institutions and e-money institutions. In everyday merchant talk, PSP often means the company behind a checkout or terminal that takes card payments for you, sometimes as an acquirer.
Payment terminal
A payment terminal is the device that reads a card, takes the PIN if one is needed and sends the payment for authorisation. Those that handle PINs are tested against the PCI PTS POI standard, and PCI SSC publishes a listing of approved devices.
Payout
A payout is the transfer of a merchant's net card takings to the merchant's bank account, after fees and refunds, on the schedule in the acquiring agreement. It is the merchant-facing step, distinct from scheme-level settlement.
PCI DSS
PCI DSS is the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, a baseline of technical and operational requirements for protecting payment account data. It applies to entities that store, process or transmit cardholder data. Card brands and acquirers decide who must demonstrate compliance.
PSD2
PSD2 is the EU's Directive (EU) 2015/2366 on payment services. It sets security rules for electronic payments, including strong customer authentication, and opens payment markets to new providers. A successor package, PSD3 plus a Payment Services Regulation, has been provisionally agreed but does not yet apply.
Reconciliation
Reconciliation is matching a merchant's recorded sales to the fees, refunds and payouts that reach the bank account. It is how the books prove that every card sale was paid, and for the right amount.
Refund
A refund is money a merchant sends back to a customer's card for a payment already made. It is a new transaction in the opposite direction, started by the merchant, not the reversal of the original payment.
Scheme fee
A scheme fee is what an acquirer or issuer pays the operator of a card scheme for scheme and processing services. It is separate from interchange, falls outside the EU interchange caps, and sits inside the merchant service charge.
SEPA Instant
SEPA Instant Credit Transfer is the European Payments Council's scheme for euro transfers that reach the recipient's account in under ten seconds, at any time. Under Regulation (EU) 2024/886, euro-area banks must offer sending and receiving; payment and e-money institutions and non-euro states follow in 2027.
Settlement
Settlement is the transfer of the net amounts that card scheme members owe one another after clearing. Issuers, acquirers and the scheme settle among themselves. It is not the transfer to the merchant, which is the payout.
Strong customer authentication
Strong customer authentication is the PSD2 requirement to verify a payer using two or more independent elements from knowledge (something you know), possession (something you have) and inherence (something you are), so that breaching one does not compromise the others.
Sub-merchant
A sub-merchant is a business that accepts cards through a payment facilitator's own acquiring arrangement instead of signing a contract directly with an acquirer. The facilitator is the contracting party towards the acquirer, and the acquirer carries the liability for it under scheme rules.
Tap to Pay
Tap to Pay turns an ordinary NFC smartphone into a contactless card terminal. The merchant opens a payment app, the customer taps a card or wallet on the phone, and no separate hardware is needed. Security is assessed under PCI SSC's MPoC standard for commercial off-the-shelf devices.
Tokenisation
Tokenisation replaces a card number with a substitute value, the token, that is limited to a particular device, merchant or use. If the token is stolen it is of little use elsewhere. EMVCo publishes the specification, and tokens are issued by token service providers.
Wero
Wero is a European bank-linked payment wallet operated by EPI Company. As of October 2026 its site lists Belgium, France, Germany and Luxembourg as live markets. It sends and receives money account to account, with online shop payments rolling out and in-store payments announced as next.