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Payment fundamentals
Acquirers, issuers, card schemes, payment gateways, merchant accounts and transaction fees.
Glossary
Plain-English payment terms, explained for travel operations.
Understand the payment, reconciliation, chargeback and finance terms that appear when travel teams are trying to solve real operational problems.
Cardsschemes, issuers and acquirers
Riskdisputes and chargebacks
Opssettlement and reconciliation
Priority glossary terms
Start with the definitions most often referenced from our payment, fraud, settlement and reconciliation articles.
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Acquirer
The payment provider or financial institution that enables a merchant to accept card payments.
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PCI DSS compliance
The card security standard for businesses that handle cardholder data.
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Strong Customer Authentication
Authentication requirements that help prove the payer is genuine.
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3DS2 / 3D Secure 2
Card authentication used by issuers to verify online payments.
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Payment link
A secure link that lets a customer pay for a booking without giving card details over the phone.
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Settlement
The movement of processed payment funds into the merchant account or bank account.
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Gross settlement
Settlement where the full transaction value is paid out before fees are deducted separately.
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Issuer
The customer’s card-issuing bank or financial institution.
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Card issuer
The bank or financial institution that issued the customer’s card.
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Card scheme
The card network, such as Visa or Mastercard, that sets rules and routes card transactions.
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Authorisation
The step where a card issuer approves or declines a payment request.
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Refund
Money returned to the customer after a payment has been taken.
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Interchange fee
A card processing fee paid between the acquirer and the issuer.
ExploreStart with the term, then drill into the workflow.
The glossary is a route into practical payment understanding. Priority definitions now resolve as full entries so blog readers can keep their context.
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Travel finance operations
Reconciliation, settlements, trust accounts, protected funds, rolling reserves and refunds.
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Risk and compliance
Chargebacks, fraud prevention, PCI DSS, SCA, 3DS and dispute handling.
Use definitions to make better decisions.
A good definition should help a team choose the next operational step, not just decode an acronym.
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Cost terms
Understand fees, interchange, surcharges, gateway charges and settlement deductions.
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Risk terms
Make sense of authentication, disputes, fraud checks, chargebacks and liability shift.
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Movement terms
Follow authorisation, capture, settlement, refunds, reserves and bank transfers.
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Travel protection terms
Connect payment language to trust accounts, protected funds, PTR and reporting evidence.
Keep exploring travel finance workflows.
Use the resources hub to move from the idea to the operating workflow behind it.