Web Terms Glossary

An acceptance of a payment. Usually in the form of an authorization code provided by the Issuing bank

The bank that does business with merchants who accept credit cards. A merchant has an account with this bank and each day deposits the value of the day's credit card sales. Acquirers buy (acquire) the merchant's sales slips and credit the tickets' value to the merchant's account.

The processor provides credit card processing, billing, reporting and settlement and operational services to acquiring and issuing banks. Many financial institutions don't do their own bankcard processing because it's more cost-effective to let someone like First Data Corporation (FDC) invest in the equipment and people and do it for them.

An organization that issues cards and acquires transactions, unlike Visa and MasterCard, which are bank associations.

that a person is who he/she claims to be, or that an email message is actually from the person or organization that claims to have sent the message.

An issuing bank's electronic message reply to an authorization request.

An electronic message sent from the Merchant's business to the customers credit card issuing bank to request an authorization code for a sale transaction.

a numerical or alphanumeric code sent by the card issuer verifying that the sale has been authorized. The authorization may be obtained by voice, software, or terminal transmission. The merchant should include the authorization number on the sales draft to facilitate the authorization process.

A payment capture method that is used by merchants who ship orders on the same day that they receive orders. The payment is captured when the merchant authorizes the credit card used by the customer.

The act of insuring that the cardholder has adequate funds available against their line of credit. A positive authorization results in an authorization code being generated, and those funds being set aside. The cardholder's available credit limit is reduced by the authorized amount.

An institution that handles savings and checking accounts, issues loans and credit, and deals in government and corporate issued securities.

A client to a web server that allows the user to read hypertext documents on the World Wide Web. Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer are examples of popular web browsers.

An account that holds funds within a bank and is subject to additional deposits and withdrawals

Each time an order is placed, it is approved and added to a "batch". But the funds have not actually been charged against the credit cards nor transferred to the merchant's bank account. That happens when the business manager accesses the Backoffice Order interface to first "capture" the funds for orders in a batch and then to "settle" the batch. Capturing the funds causes the credit cards to get charged and the funds to be transferred to the merchant bank account.

a central point where buyers and sellers can engage in electronic commerce, or build and manage an online business. http://www.ecplace.com is a free Business Community index that Multiactive Software provides free of charge to all ecBuilder merchants.

Money in the form of paper or coin that is readily available for use as a medium of exchange.

The extension of funds issued by a bank that allows a consumer to purchase goods or services from a merchant. The consumer then pays back the bank either in full or in installments, at an interest rate determined by the bank.

The act of converting the authorization amount into a billable transaction record. Transactions cannot be captured unless previously authorized, and authorizations should not be captured until the goods or services have been shipped or transmitted to the consumer.

The process a check goes through to validate and transfer funds between banks. An electronic check will clear in the same manner as a paper check.

A person who purchases goods and services.

Any person who opens a credit card account and makes purchases using a credit card.

An electronic affidavit, issued by a trusted organization, like a bank, that vouches for the identity and the authority of an individual or business to conduct any transaction over the Internet.

A Certificate Authority can be an issuer of Security Certificates used in SSL connections, as well as a trusted third-party organization that can verify the identity and origin of a person or organization. These institutions issue digital certificates directly to end-users or to other certificate authorities allowing them to also issue digital certificates. A certificate authority, such as Thawte or VeriSign, vouches for the identity and the authority of an individual or business to conduct transactions over the Internet.

The process of taking back, or debiting, the merchant's credit card funds after the funds have been paid to the merchant. This occurs when a customer disputes a credit card transaction. The merchant must respond to the charge back and provide proof that the product or service was provided to the customer.

A bank account that the account holder can draw checks against without giving prior notice or having a passbook.

A computer program that allows web servers to forward requests for processing to other programs, which then return their results to the web server.

contact with a remote computer.

A bank-issued card that allows consumers to purchase goods or services from a merchant on credit.

A reference to both the actual machine and the company hosting the credit card gateway server, acting as a middleman between the ecBuilder merchant and the merchant bank. The Credit Card Gateway passes data between the merchants business Web site and the banks.

The value of a merchant's credit card purchases that are credited to its bank account after the acquirer buys the merchant's sales slips. The deposit is credited. It is not funded until the acquirer gets the monetary value from the issuer during settlement.

Data Encryption Standard

The process of subtracting from the balance of an account.

When permission to perform a particular action has been declined.

The process of converting encrypted data or text back to plain data or text.

The transfer of data from a host computer to a client computer over a network, in this case, the Internet.

A bank account, such as a checking account, that allows the holder to withdraw funds or use funds for payment upon demand.

An ATM bankcard. This type of card allows a merchant to deduct money directly from a customer's bank account.

Money, in the form of information, that can be stored in electronic wallets or on smart cards. Digital cash systems have been designed for use on the Internet for so-called "micropayments" - payments for goods that are too inexpensive to be paid for by credit cards

A digital certificate is a special kind of message that contains information about who it belongs to, who it was issued by, a unique serial number or other unique identification, valid dates, and an encrypted "fingerprint" that can be used to verify the contents of the certificate. Digital certificates are issued by trusted third parties, known as Certificate Authorities. The public key of the ecBuilder merchant's digital certificate is used to encrypt the shopper's order information before it is emailed to him.

A way to ensure whether a message was actually sent by the person who claimed to have sent it. The sender's private key encrypts the signature, and the recipient decrypts the signature with the sender's public key. Digital signatures use public key cryptography and work in conjunction with certificates

A percentage rate that is charged by the acquiring bank for processing a merchant's transaction. The type of business and/or how the credit card is processed usually determine this rate. Retail based transactions, also known as Card Present transactions are assigned lower discount rates than MO/TO, also known as Mail Order/Telephone Order, Internet, or Card Not Present transactions.

An arrangement whereby a mail-order or Internet merchant accepts orders for products, and then pays a manufacturer or distributor to ship the product to the customer.

A method of crediting or debiting an account through electronic means. Eliminating the need for paper, such as a check or withdrawal slip.

An electronic version of the traditional paper check. It includes all the components of a paper check and can be used as a method of payment on the Internet. Currently the Payment Gateways that are integrated with ecBuilder do not support Electronic Checks.

A combination of state of the art technology and established business practices to prevent fraud on electronic checks. Electronic check pilots are currently being conducted using a combination of technology tools, data encryption, digital signatures, certificates, secure e-mail and smart card technology to ensure that the security of the system is not compromised.

The validation of an electronic check using certificates and digital signatures. Once the electronic check is deposited, the bank will perform additional verification against internal databases.

Also called a virtual wallet, a software mechanism that allows commerce server users to store and use credit card and electronic payment information. Typically, information in the wallet is encrypted and is persistent from session to session. Currently the Payment Gateways that are integrated with ecBuilder do not support the use of Electronic Wallets

The process of scrambling a message to ensure data secrecy. The message is encoded using an electronic key, which makes it unintelligible to anyone except to the holders of the other half of the key. There are two main types of encryption methods, private key and public key encryption.

availability The amount of money available for a consumer to use to make purchases.

An institution that obtains capital from individuals, businesses, and other organizations and invests it in various financial assets.

A device that allows for the translation and management of communication between networks that use different protocols or designs.

A computer running Internet protocols that can act as either a client or a server on the Internet.

Tangible products that are distributed through the postal or other delivery service. Contrasts with soft goods, which are distributed electronically.

A software application that supports another software application. For example, the ecOrderDesk is a helper application ecBuilder.

A credit card processing model where the authorization and capture of the transaction data are accomplished within a single message sent to the payment processor.

The formatting or document description language use to create World Wide Web pages

Allows for the exchange of HTML documents over the World Wide Web.

A server that forwards client requests using the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) over the World Wide Web.

The bank that extends credit to customers through bankcard accounts. The bank issues the credit card and receives the cardholder's payment at the end of the billing period. Also called the issuing bank or the cardholder bank.

An imprint of a customer's credit card can be electronic, swiping the card through a credit card terminal, or manual, taking a physical impression of the credit card. Either of these two methods is required to prove the customer's credit card was present.

The act of providing a bank card to a cardholder and authorizing them to use it to make financial transactions

The Internet is the world's largest computer network; it is essentially a network of networks. Any device attached to the Internet can communicate with any other device on the network. Some uses of the Internet include sending and receiving email, browsing web sites, and increasingly, the buying and selling of goods and services.

A reduction in price given to customers after a purchase has been made.

The act of combining or coordinating several parts or elements into an entire whole. For example, the Cardservie International payment-processing engine is integrated with the ecBuilder Web site creation software.

The exchange of information, transaction data and money among banks. Interchange systems are managed by associations like Visa and MasterCard, and are very standardized so banks and merchants worldwide can use them.

A fee paid by the acquiring bank/merchant bank to the issuing bank. The fee is meant to compensates the issuer for the time after settlement with the acquiring bank/merchant bank and before it recoups the settlement value from the cardholder.

A business owner who sells products or services over the Internet.

A unique number that is assigned to any device connected to the Internet.

An organization that performs merchant solicitation, sales or service on behalf of financial institutions and/or processors.

The use of the public and private key together. The public key is used to exchange and encrypt the private key.

means a URL hidden behind a formatting option that may take the form of a colored item of text, logo or image, and which allows a user to automatically move between WWW pages, WWW sites or within a WWW document.

Records of network activities. These activities can include access records, errors, and financial transactions.