Acceptor: A business that has qualified to accept credit or debit cards as payment.This is YOU; AKA "the Merchant"

Acquirer: An Acquirer is a Visa/MasterCard Affiliated Bank or Bank/Processor team that is in the business of processing credit card transactions. The Acquirer deposits the daily credit card totals and debits the end of month processing fees from the merchant's accounts.Standard 3rd Party merchant services providers.

Acquiring Financial Institution: An acquiring financial institution (or "acquirer") contracts with the bank and merchants to enable credit card transactions. The acquirer deposits the daily credit card totals and debits the end-of-month processing fees from the merchant's accounts.When your bank acts as your merchant services company with the same or similar name and branding as your bank.

Address Verification Service (AVS): The process of validating a cardholder's given address against the issuer's records, to determine accuracy and deter fraud. This service is provided as part of a credit card authorization for mail order/telephone order (MOTO) transactions. A code is returned with the authorization result that indicates the level of accuracy of the address match and helps secure the most favorable interchange rates.The credit card machine prompt that asks for more information. Get it. Enter it. You'll keep the crooks and scams away and your costs down.

Adjustment: An adjustment is initiated by the acquirer to correct a processing error. The error could be a duplication of a transaction or the result of a cardholder dispute. The acquirer debits or credits the merchant DDA account for the dollar amount of the adjustment.Your processor paying you back for an overcharge.

Associations: Any entity formed to administer and promote credit and cards. The best known examples of Associations are MasterCard and Visa.The Big Boys: American Express (AMEX), Discover Financial Services, JCB International (Japanese Credit Bureau), MasterCard Worldwide and Visa Inc.

Audio Response Unit (ARU): This is an electronic authorization and capture product where the merchant uses a touch-tone telephone to process transactions.This is the backup way to run a sale when your machine isn't working. You call into it in and a series of beeps takes you through running a sale in a pinch.

Authorization: The process of verifying the credit card has sufficient credit available to cover the amount of the transaction. An authorization is obtained for every sale. An approval response in the form of a code sent to a merchant's POS equipment (usually a terminal) from a card issuing financial institution that verifies availability of credit or funds in the cardholder account to make the purchase. Also see Point-of-Sale.Any time your machine dials out.

Authorization Response: An issuing financial institution's electronic message reply to an authorization request, which may include:

Approval - transaction was approved.
Decline - transaction was not approved.
Call Center - response pending more information, merchant must call the toll-free authorization phone number.When your machine tells you if the card is good or not.

Authorization Code: A code that a credit card issuing bank returns in an electronic message to the merchant's POS equipment that indicates approval of the transaction. The code serves as proof of authorization.Consider this the official IOU for your money that you'll get when you close out your machine at the end of the day.

Auto Close: A terminal feature that allows an end-of-day batch closing to occur automatically at a specified time, without having to be initiated by the merchant.A safety net on your machine that collects the money for the day, if you don't do it manually.

Automated Clearing House (ACH):The electronic network that administers the exchange and settlement of electronic payments passed between financial institutions. It allows debits and credits to be deducted from an account automatically as they occur.A branch of the Federal Reserve Bank that checks to see that your customer's card is valid and that it isn't maxed out.

Average Ticket Sale (Average Sale): The average dollar amount of a merchant's typical sale. The average ticket amount is calculated by dividing the total sales volume by the total number of sales for the specified time period.You already knew this. FYI - lower is better because credit card transactions are like little loans. The smaller the loan the less the risk is when something goes wrong with it.