Payment Industry Terms & Definitions

Term	Definition
Real-time Processing	Automatically validating and processing a customer’s credit card information for a merchant The process ends with an automatic deposit of the funds into the merchant’s bank account.
Receipt	Evidence of a sale A receipt usually includes the product or service description, purchase date, sale price, and method of payment Merchant information on receipt includes a merchant name and location and may include a primary account number and reference number.
Recurring Fees	Monthly, repetitive, regularly-scheduled charges to maintain a merchant account Recurring fees may include monthly minimums, transaction fees, statement fees, and many others.
Reserve Account	See glossary definition for “Holdback.”
Retail	Most often refers to the Card Present sale of goods or services at a merchant’s physical, brick and mortar location.
Retrieval Request	A request made by a card issuer, on behalf of a cardholder or bank, to a merchant for a transaction’s documentation Merchants have 10 days to submit the requested transaction documentation. Unfulfilled requests that exceed the 10-day period are converted into chargebacks and the merchant is liable for additional fees.
Return or Returned Item	Checks that are returned as unpaid due to an incorrect account number, closed account, nonsufficient funds, or another reason.
Reversal	A rejected chargeback When a merchant provides evidence of a fulfilled sale accompanied by appropriate documentation, the chargeback is reversed, and the transaction is not a loss for the merchant. Examples of fulfilled sale documentation include a sales agreement, proof of acceptable delivery as advertised, etc.
Risk-adjusted Rates	The individual risk factors of a merchant that determine its merchant account rates Risk-adjusted rates are systematized by The Associations (Visa and MasterCard). Examples of risk factors are business location and longevity, marketing and sales methods, goods and services sold, merchant’s personal credit history, etc.
Route Transit Number (RTN)	A Route Transit Number (sometimes referred to as a Route Transit Number or RTN) is a nine-digit bank code identifying the financial institution from which an instrument draws on.

Real-time Processing

Automatically validating and processing a customer’s credit card information for a merchant The process ends with an automatic deposit of the funds into the merchant’s bank account.

Receipt

Evidence of a sale A receipt usually includes the product or service description, purchase date, sale price, and method of payment Merchant information on receipt includes a merchant name and location and may include a primary account number and reference number.

Recurring Fees

Monthly, repetitive, regularly-scheduled charges to maintain a merchant account Recurring fees may include monthly minimums, transaction fees, statement fees, and many others.

Reserve Account

See glossary definition for “Holdback.”

Retail

Most often refers to the Card Present sale of goods or services at a merchant’s physical, brick and mortar location.

Retrieval Request

A request made by a card issuer, on behalf of a cardholder or bank, to a merchant for a transaction’s documentation Merchants have 10 days to submit the requested transaction documentation. Unfulfilled requests that exceed the 10-day period are converted into chargebacks and the merchant is liable for additional fees.

Return or Returned Item

Checks that are returned as unpaid due to an incorrect account number, closed account, nonsufficient funds, or another reason.

Reversal

A rejected chargeback When a merchant provides evidence of a fulfilled sale accompanied by appropriate documentation, the chargeback is reversed, and the transaction is not a loss for the merchant. Examples of fulfilled sale documentation include a sales agreement, proof of acceptable delivery as advertised, etc.

Risk-adjusted Rates

The individual risk factors of a merchant that determine its merchant account rates Risk-adjusted rates are systematized by The Associations (Visa and MasterCard). Examples of risk factors are business location and longevity, marketing and sales methods, goods and services sold, merchant’s personal credit history, etc.

Route Transit Number (RTN)

A Route Transit Number (sometimes referred to as a Route Transit Number or RTN) is a nine-digit bank code identifying the financial institution from which an instrument draws on.

Glossary