Merchant Account Services

Merchant Services Glossary - Letter I

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Imprinter
A device used by merchants to imprint embossed card information onto the sales drafts for bankcard transactions.
INAS
Interbank National Authorization System. The MasterCard authorization system.
Incremental
Terminology used in the lodging industry to indicate additional approvals obtained on a cardholder’s account.
Industry
Refers to the type of merchant business. For example, Comfort Inn is a merchant in the lodging industry.
INET
Interbank Network for Electronic Transfer. The MasterCard settlement system for the daily processing and routing of worldwide financial transactions between MasterCard and its members.
Interest
A fee charged by the card Issuing Bank when the Cardholder does not pay off his/her entire balance with each statement. Interest is to offset the cost of carrying the balance.
Interlink
A national debit network.
Init
Terminology used to do a partial download on the Hypercom terminals.
Interbank
A National debit network.
Interchange
The exchange of transactions between clearing members for Visa and MasterCard transactions, according to the associations operating rules and regulations. During this process transactions are routed to the appropriate card issuing bank.
Interchange Differential
This method of billing is mainly used for converted FUNB and Crestar accounts. Merchants are charged a base or Qualified rate. This rate assumes that the merchant will attempt to qualify his/her transactions. If the transactions do not qualify, they will be charged the Interchange expense differential.
Interchange Fees
Fees paid by the merchant Bank (acquirer) to the MasterCard and Visa for processing transactions. These fees are paid at the time the transaction is exchanged. Fees vary based on processing method utilized by the merchant.
Interchange Reimbursement Fee
A Fee that an Acquirer pays to an Issuer in the Clearing and Settlement of a credit card transaction.
ISO
Independent Sales Organization, also called a member service provider. An outside company (not MasterCard or Visa member) that is contracted by members to administer merchant and/or cardholder servicing.
Issuer
The financial institution (a licensed member of MasterCard or Visa) that holds contractual agreements with and issues cards to cardholders.
Issuer's Control Number
The identification number assigned to a retrieval request by the issuer.
Issuers' Clearinghouse Service (ICS)
A joint MasterCard and Visa service designed to detect fraudulent and high-risk credit card applications. The service, which is mandated for use in the application screening process, validates and tracks addresses, phone numbers and Social Security numbers used in credit applications and in reports of fraudulent activity.
Issuing Bank
The bank or other company that issues a credit card to a Cardholder.

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