Merchant Services Terms Beginning with P

Payment Gateway: A Payment Gateway is service provided by an e-commerce application service provider that authorizes all payments for electronic merchants, internet retailers, those companies that use both physical retail spaces and online sales, or traditional brick and mortar retail centers.

Payment Gateway Service Provider: A Payment Gateway Service Provider is the entity or group that provides online businesses the figurative gateway or throughway for sales transaction information to pass from a merchant’s online sales hub to the credit card processing company.

Payment Processor: A Payment Processor is a company that routes credit card transactions from merchant locations to credit card issuers for complete authorization and eventual settlement.

Personal Identification Number: A Personal Identification Number – or PIN – is a numeric password shared between a user and a system that can be used to authenticate the user to the system.

Pinpads: Pinpads are small metallic or plastic boxes with 10-numeric and up to 16 overall keys

Point of Sale: or POS – specifically refers to the location where a transaction occurs.

Point of Sale Terminal – A Point Of Sale Terminal – or POS – is the hardware and software used for sales transaction checkouts at a retail location or online store.

Programming Fee – For retail merchants, a Programming Fee is a fee charged for programming the merchant’s sales terminal or credit card reader.

Purchase Cards: sometimes also known as P-Cards – are credit cards for use specifically by employees of government agencies, schools or individual corporations.