Glossary

Fraudulent User

An individual who is not the cardholder or designee and who uses a card (or, in a mail/phone order or recurring transaction, an account number) to obtain goods or services without the cardholders consent.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

Introduced to keep pace with the modern digital landscape, GDPR is more extensive in scope and application than the current Data Protection Act (DPA). The Regulation
extends the data rights of individuals and requires organisations to develop clear policies and procedures to protect personal data
and adopt appropriate technical and organisational measures.

HSBC

HSBC is one of the largest banking and financial services organisations in the world. HSBC’s international network has around 8,000 offices in 88 countries and territories across Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, North, Central and South America, the Middle East and Africa. HSBC is a supported merchant at Cardstream, to have a look at the full list of supported merchants, click here.

HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol)

HTTP is a client/server protocol for delivering hypertext material across an internet. HTTP is stateless: when a client makes multiple requests to a single HTTP server, each request is treated independently. HTTP servers do not remember the earlier requests. The stateless protocol allows HTTP servers to respond to requests quickly.

HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol – Secure)

A variant of HTTP for handling secure transactions. Browsers that support the URL access method, https, connect to HTTP servers using SSL. https is a unique protocol that is simply SSL underneath HTTP.

Hyperlink

An active cross-reference from one resource to another. The cross-reference is called active because it is presented in a medium which allows the reader to follow it, for example by mouse-clicking it. A reader can follow hyperlinks in an HTML document using a Web browser, or navigate through online help, or follow hyperlinks between terms defined in a glossary.

Independent Service Organization (ISO)

In the payment systems industry, a third party organization that facilitates merchant registration to accept charge or credit cards.

Interchange

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

Interchange Fee

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

Interchange Reimbursement Fee

One of the following: A fee that an acquirer pays to an issuer in the clearing and settlement of an interchange transaction, based on either the standard (paper-based) rate or electronic rate. A fee that an issuer pays to an acquirer for making a cash disbursement to a cardholder or check purchaser.

Internet

A global public network consisting of millions of interconnected computers all linked together using the Internet Protocol.

Introductory Rate

Various credit cards offer a low introductory rate that switches to a higher variable or fixed rate in order to attract customers. It could be described as a special offer, or discount. Make sure that you know how long the introductory rate is applicable and what APR the card will carry after the introductory period elapses. Be aware that the introductory rate for some cards may be very different to the actual standard rate.

ISO

Independent Service Organization. In the payment systems industry, a third party organization that facilitates merchant registration to accept charge or credit cards.

ISP

Internet Service Provider.

Issuer

Any association member financial institution, bank, credit union, or company that issues, or causes to be issued, plastic cards to cardholders.

JCB

JCB (Formerly Japanese Credit Bureau): Since being established in 1961, JCB has maintained the position as a leader in the Japanese
card industry. JCB is Japan’s premier and only international payment brand, with wide acceptance in Japan and Asia.

Key

When used in the context of encryption, a series of numbers which are used by an encryption algorithm to transform plaintext data into encrypted (ciphertext) data, and vice versa.

Level 3

Level-3 (also known as Level III, Level 3, or Level-III) line-item detail is a data specification designed to support business-to-business and business-to-government credit card use. Level-3 line item detail provides specific purchase information such as Item Description, Quantity, Unit of Measure, Price, and more. This information is very useful to cardholding organizations to help streamline accounting and business practices and to merge payment data with electronic procurement systems.

Magnetic Stripe

A stripe of magnetic information affixed to the back of a plastic credit or debit card. It contains customer and account information required to complete electronic financial transactions. The physical and magnetic characteristics of this stripe are specified in the International Organization for Standardization standards 7810, 7811, and 7813.

Magnetic-stripe Reader

A device that reads information from the magnetic stripe and transmits that information to a transaction processor or computer terminal. Also referred to as card reader.