Web Terms Glossary

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.