Third-Party Processor

Third-party processor is an organization that is not a member of MasterCard or Visa and that performs transaction authorization and processing, account record keeping, and other day-to-day business and administrative functions for card issuers and merchant banks.

Split Tender

Split tender is the use of two forms of payment, or legal tender, for a single purchase. For example, when buying a big-ticket item, a cardholder might pay half by cash or check and then put the other half on his or her credit card. Individual merchants may set their own policies about whether or not to accept split-tender transactions.

Split Sales

Split sales occur when two or more sales receipts are issued for the purchase of a single item, using a single cardholder account, in order to avoid authorization limits. Split sales are prohibited by the Credit Card Companies and Associations.

Skimming

Skimming is the replication of account information encoded on the magnetic stripe of a valid payment card and its subsequent use for fraudulent transactions in which a valid authorization occurs. The account information is captured from a valid card and then re-encoded on a counterfeit card. The term "skimming" is also used to refer to any situation in which electronically transmitted or stored account data is replicated and then re-encoded on counterfeit cards or used in some other way for fraudulent transactions.

Signature Panel

Signature panel is the panel for cardholders' signatures on the back of all valid payment cards. Payment cards are not valid without signature. The signature panel is one of the card security features that merchants should check to ensure that a card-present transaction is valid. The different major card companies and associations place various data on the signature panel. MasterCard, Visa and Discover for example, place their card security codes in or immediately next to the panel.

Sales Receipt

Sales receipt is the paper or electronic record of a payment card transaction that a merchant submits to a merchant bank for processing and payment. In most cases, paper sales receipts are generated by a merchant's point of sale (POS) terminal. When a merchant fills out a sales receipt manually, it must include an imprint of the front of the card.