Credit Card Processing
All Credit Card Processing Articles
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The Durbin Amendment and Debit Interchange Caps
The Durbin Amendment caps debit interchange for large-bank cards while exempting smaller banks. Here's how the rule...
Credit Card Surcharging by State in 2026
State credit card surcharge laws shifted after federal court rulings on commercial speech. Connecticut and...
Reserve Accounts and Rolling Reserves in Merchant Processing
A merchant account reserve is funds your processor holds to cover potential chargebacks. Understand the three reserve...
Card-Not-Present vs Card-Present: The Real Rate Difference
Card-not-present transactions cost more than in-person at both the interchange and markup layers. Here's why, what...
Settlement Timing: Why Your Deposits Vary
Credit card settlement time isn't a single event. It's a four-stage pipeline shaped by batch cutoffs, ACH windows,...
The Acquirer-Processor-ISO-Agent Chain
Most merchants don't know who they actually signed with. The four-layer chain of acquirer, processor, ISO, and agent...
Account Updater Services: Fighting Subscription Churn
An account updater service automatically refreshes expired or reissued card data for subscription businesses. It...
EMV Liability Shift: Who Pays for Fraud at the Terminal
The 2015 EMV liability shift moved counterfeit card fraud loss to whichever party hasn't adopted chip technology....
3D Secure 2: When It Helps Conversion and When It Hurts
3D Secure 2 helps merchants when fraud chargebacks threaten margin and hurts when challenge flow drains conversion. The...
Tokenization vs Encryption: What Actually Protects Card Data
Tokenization replaces card numbers with reference values that have no exploitable meaning. Encryption scrambles the...
Level 2 and Level 3 Data: How B2B Merchants Unlock Lower Rates
Level 2 and Level 3 data cuts interchange on commercial cards by up to 130 basis points. Learn what fields are required...
Interchange Rate Categories: Qualified, Mid-Qualified, and Non-Qualified
Qualified, mid-qualified, and non-qualified rates are a processor pricing layer, not actual Visa or Mastercard...