Bank Of America Merchant Services Iso Program

What are Merchant Services Fidelity Payment Services. Merchant Services, or better known as credit card processing is the handling of electronic payment transactions for merchants. Merchant processing activities involve obtaining sales information from the merchant, receiving authorization for the transaction, collecting funds from the bank which issued the credit card, and sending payment to the merchant. Back in the good old days, when life was much simpler, merchant services was limited to the following scenario John Doe walks in to Sams Supermarket and makes a purchase. Being that John and Sam were good pals, Sam had no problem extending credit to John. Sam would write down the amount of the purchase in his little black book and collect the balance at a later date. Since this model was driven by Sams personal relationship with John, if John were to walk in to an unfamiliar store on the other side of town and request credit, he would probably find himself in the uncomfortable position of being shown the front door Wouldnt it be great if there were some sort of system that would allow merchants to extend credit to their unfamiliar customers without exposing themselves to risk In 1. Mr. John Biggins developed a system that did just that. Programs AZ. Find program websites, online videos and more for your favorite PBS shows. Issuu is a digital publishing platform that makes it simple to publish magazines, catalogs, newspapers, books, and more online. Easily share your publications and get. It was known as the Charg It system and it allowed customers to charge their local retail purchases. The merchant then deposited the charges at Biggins bank, and the bank reimbursed the merchant for the sale and collected payment from the customer. Believe it or not, American Express AMEX is still based on this model to this very day, albeit on a very large scale with millions of merchants and millions of card holders. Actually, until 2. Discover also worked this way, but then switched over to the same model as VisaMaster. Card. Well get to that a bit laterBy 1. Simultaneously, card issuers were offering the added services of revolving credit. This gave the cardholder the choice to either pay off their balance or maintain a balance and pay a finance charge. But this system also had its disadvantages. As more and more banks started instituting their own credit programs, cardholders were presented with the dilemma of walking around with dozens of cards from multiple banks, and merchants were equally troubled with having to deal with many banking organizations. If only there was a way to get the banks to group together under one umbrella organizationDuring the 1. Pei Witness News Holiday Edition Barbie. Offers merchant accounts, terminals, ACHEFT software, ATMs and gift card programs. Computer-and-cell-phone-1024x304.jpg' alt='Bank Of America Merchant Services Iso Programs' title='Bank Of America Merchant Services Iso Programs' />Many banks joined together and formed Card Associations, a new concept with the ability to exchange information of credit card transactions otherwise known as INTERCHANGE. The associations established rules for authorization, clearing and settlement as well as the rates that banks were entitled to charge for each transaction. They also handled marketing, security, and legal aspects of running the organization. The two most well known card associations were National Bankamericard and Mastercharge which eventually became Visa and Master. Card. A big distinction in the new system, as opposed to the old way of doing things was that there are always 2 banks involved in the process one on the side of the cardholder, and one on the side of the merchant, as well as the card associations VisaMC which are not banks, but rather act as the referee. The bank representing the cardholder is known as the issuing bank, as they issue credit to their customer, and the bank representing the merchant is called an acquirer, as they acquire the money on behalf of the merchant. Just as the cardholder must have an account with the issuing bank, so to the merchant must have an account with the acquiring bank. This account is called a merchant account and is used strictly for the transfer of funds from their credit card sales through this account and on to their regular business checking account this business account can be any account of their choosing. The card associations act as a referee since they handle marketing, security, and legal issues, but not the actual transfer or responsibility of funds. But things were still far from perfect. During the early 1. The major problems were losses and huge overhead, not to mention that merchants had to wait as long as 2 weeks for their money. There was a tremendous need for automation and a more cost and time effective way to process transactions. So, both National Bankamericard and Mastercharge introduced electronic payment systems in two stages. The authorization system was re vamped in 1. Authorization is the process of guaranteeing there is adequate credit available on the card and capturing that authorized amount to reduce the available credit. This was previously based on a floor limit and a phone call was placed to a call center for any amount over the floor limit. National Bank. Americard NBI introduced Base I which was their electronic online authorization system. That same year Master. Charge introduced INAS for on line authorizations. In 1. 97. 4, NBI introduced Base II for on line electronic clearing and settlement while Master. Charge introduced INET. Also in 1. 97. 4, Bank of Americas international licensees chartered an international company, IBANCO, to administer Bank. Americard, Inc. outside the U. S. By the late 1. ICA too had members from as far as Africa and Australia. To reflect the commitment to international growth, ICA changed its name to Master. Card. Although Visa and Master. Card are two distinct organizations, all banks today are members of both associations. It was not always this way, but in the 1. By 1. 97. 9, electronic processing was progressing. Dial up terminals and magnetic strips on the back of credit cards were introduced thus enabling retailers to swipe the customers credit card through the electronic terminal. These terminals were able to access the issuing bank card holder information. This new technology gave authorizations and processed settlement agreements in a matter of 12 minutes. The reduction in paper was an added and much appreciated benefit. Throughout its existence, Visa has been a leader in credit card innovation. Because of this they have emerged as the worlds leading credit card association with over 1 Billion cards being issued, and carrying over 5. In 2. 00. 8, Discover switched joined the interchange model of doing business, and by now most acquiring banks are already offering all three services VisaMCDiscover. AUTHORIZING TRANSACTIONSThe merchant must receive an approval from the card issuing bank authorizing the transaction in order to process the sale. The authorization process is designed to protect the merchant from the use of fraudulent cards, as well as prevent transactions being approved for cardholders who are over their credit limit or have not paid their bills. Typically, the clerk at the point of sale swipes the credit card through a terminal to obtain the information stored on the magnetic stripe on the back of the card, then inputs the amount of the transaction. This information is then transmitted to the merchant bank or its processor, who captures the transaction and forwards the information to the card issuing bank through the bankcard association network. Idm 7.1 Version With Serial Key. The transaction will then be approved or declined depending on the status of the cardholders account, and this decision will be transmitted back through the bankcard association network to the point of sale terminal.