Travel payments glossary
Plain-English payment terms, explained for travel operations.
113 definitions spanning cards, acquiring, open banking, settlement, fraud, refunds and travel-specific protection rules — written for the people running the workflow, not just the people writing the spec.
Start with the priority terms.
The definitions travel finance teams reach for most often when handling deposits, balances, settlements, refunds and disputes.
- Travel payment gateway
A payment gateway specifically built for the shapes of travel commerce.
Read definition - Travel payments system
The end-to-end system of payment, reconciliation and reporting around travel bookings.
Read definition - UK merchant acquirers
The institutions licensed to process card payments for merchants in the United Kingdom.
Read definition - Airline payment solution
A payment setup designed for the specific demands of airline ticket sales and ancillary revenue.
Read definition - Open banking
Regulated APIs that let licensed third parties access bank accounts on a customer’s behalf.
Read definition - Strong Customer Authentication
A regulatory authentication requirement for many electronic payments under PSD2.
Read definition - Chargeback
A reversal of a card payment initiated by the cardholder’s issuing bank.
Read definition - Settlement
The movement of processed payment funds into the merchant account or bank account.
Read definition - Payment link
A shareable link that lets a customer make a payment for a specific amount and purpose.
Read definition
Every term, A to Z.
Click any term for the full definition, why it matters in travel, how felloh handles it and a list of related terms to keep exploring.
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1 termsA
13 terms- Acquirer The financial institution or payment provider that enables a merchant to accept card payments.
- Acquiring bank The bank that holds the merchant account and processes card payments on the business’s behalf.
- Act of God A clause for events outside human control, often referenced in travel cancellation and payment terms.
- Aggregator model A payments model where many sub-merchants accept payments under a single acquirer relationship.
- Airline payment solution A payment setup designed for the specific demands of airline ticket sales and ancillary revenue.
- AISP (Account Information Service Provider) A regulated provider that can read bank account information with the customer’s consent under PSD2.
- Alternative payment method (APM) Any payment method other than the major international card schemes.
- Anticipated settlement date The expected date a processed payment will arrive in the merchant bank account.
- API (Application Programming Interface) in travel payments A defined interface that lets travel and finance systems exchange payment and booking data programmatically.
- Authorisation The step where a card issuer approves or declines a payment request.
- Authorisation code The reference number a card issuer returns when it approves a transaction.
- Authorisation hold A temporary reservation of funds on a card before the merchant captures the payment.
- AVS (Address Verification System) A fraud check that compares the billing address with the address the issuer holds for the cardholder.
B
7 terms- B2B (business-to-business) payments in travel Payments between travel businesses rather than between a travel business and a consumer.
- Back-office reconciliation The process of matching payment activity, settlement and booking records so the finance picture is consistent.
- Bank transfer A payment made directly between bank accounts rather than over a card scheme.
- Batch settlement Settlement of multiple transactions grouped together and paid out in one consolidated movement.
- Beneficiary The party receiving the funds from a payment or transfer.
- BIC (Bank Identifier Code) A standardised code that identifies a specific bank for international payments.
- BIN (Bank Identification Number) The first digits of a card number that identify the issuing institution.
C
16 terms- Card issuer The bank or financial institution that issued the customer’s card.
- Card scheme The card network, such as Visa or Mastercard, that sets rules and routes card transactions.
- Card verification Checks used to confirm a card is genuine and the user has legitimate access to it.
- Card-not-present (CNP) transaction A card payment taken without the card being physically presented to the merchant.
- Chargeback A reversal of a card payment initiated by the cardholder’s issuing bank.
- Chargeback fraud A dispute raised by a cardholder who did receive the goods or services they paid for.
- Chargeback ratio The number of chargebacks against a merchant relative to their total transactions, by value or count.
- Chargeback reason code The scheme-defined code that explains why a chargeback was raised.
- Clearing The process of exchanging transaction information between banks before settlement.
- Clearing house The institution that processes the exchange of payment instructions and balances between banks.
- Compliance The set of legal, regulatory and scheme rules a payment process has to follow.
- Contactless payment A payment made by tapping a card or device on a reader without entering a PIN.
- Cross-border fees Fees applied when the cardholder country differs from the merchant country.
- Currency conversion The conversion of one currency into another during a payment, settlement or refund.
- Customer authentication The process of confirming the customer making a payment is who they claim to be.
- CVC (Card Verification Code) A short security code printed on a card that is checked during card-not-present payments.
D
7 terms- Decline code The scheme code an issuer returns when it refuses to authorise a payment.
- Decline ratio The proportion of authorisation requests that end in a decline.
- Deferred payment A payment whose collection is scheduled for a later date than the moment of sale.
- Digital wallet A payment method that stores card or account credentials on a device or in an app.
- Dispute resolution The process of resolving a disagreement between a customer, merchant and issuer over a payment.
- Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) Offering the customer to pay in their home currency at the point of sale.
- Dynamic routing Routing each payment to the acquirer or method most likely to give the best outcome.
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3 termsF
4 terms- Fee schedule The published list of fees an acquirer or processor charges per transaction type and card product.
- Flexible payment plans Payment options that let the customer pay over multiple instalments rather than upfront.
- Fraud detection The process of identifying potentially fraudulent payments before or shortly after authorisation.
- Fraud prevention Designing controls, processes and product flows to reduce the likelihood of fraud succeeding.
G
3 terms- Gateway fee A per-transaction or monthly fee charged by a payment gateway for connecting the merchant to processing.
- Gateway timeout When a payment gateway fails to respond within the expected time window during processing.
- Gross settlement Settlement where the full transaction value is paid out before fees are deducted separately.
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2 termsI
4 terms- Insolvency protection Schemes that protect customer money if a travel business fails before travel is delivered.
- Interchange fee A fee paid by the acquirer to the issuer on each card transaction, set by the scheme.
- International Bank Account Number (IBAN) A standardised account number used for international bank transfers.
- Issuer The bank or financial institution that issues a card to a cardholder.
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2 termsM
6 terms- Merchant account The bank or acquirer account into which a merchant’s card-payment settlements are paid.
- Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) The total fee a merchant pays per card transaction, expressed as a percentage of value.
- Merchant of record (MoR) The legal entity responsible for processing a payment and dealing with disputes and compliance.
- Mobile payments Payments initiated and authenticated through a mobile device.
- MOTO (mail order / telephone order) Card payments taken without the card being present, typically over the phone or by post.
- Multi-currency pricing Presenting and capturing prices in multiple currencies rather than a single base currency.
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1 termsO
2 termsP
16 terms- Payment aggregator A provider that consolidates payments for many sub-merchants under one acquirer relationship.
- Payment facilitator (PayFac) A regulated entity that lets businesses accept payments under its own merchant account.
- Payment gateway The technology layer that connects a merchant to the acquirer and processor.
- Payment link A shareable link that lets a customer make a payment for a specific amount and purpose.
- Payment portal A customer-facing portal where customers can view and pay outstanding amounts on their bookings.
- Payment processor A provider that moves payment data between the merchant, acquirer, scheme and issuer.
- Payment rails The underlying networks that move money between accounts.
- Payment reconciliation Matching payment records across systems so each payment, refund and settlement is accounted for.
- Payment scheduling Setting up future payments to be taken automatically against a booking on agreed dates.
- PCI DSS compliance A security standard for any organisation that stores, processes or transmits cardholder data.
- Pending transaction A transaction that has been authorised or initiated but not yet finalised.
- PISP (Payment Initiation Service Provider) A regulated provider that can initiate payments from a customer’s bank account with consent.
- Point of sale (POS) The system used to take payment in person at the moment of sale.
- Pre-authorisation An authorisation that reserves funds on a card before the final amount is captured.
- Principal provider A licensed provider that holds direct membership of the card schemes.
- PSD2 (Payment Services Directive 2) EU regulation that introduced strong customer authentication and opened bank accounts to licensed third parties.
R
4 terms- Recurring billing Taking a payment from the same customer on a repeated schedule.
- Refund Money returned to the customer after a payment has been taken.
- Right of withdrawal A statutory right for some consumers to withdraw from a contract within a defined period.
- Rolling reserve A reserve of funds held by the acquirer that releases on a rolling schedule.
S
10 terms- SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) A pan-European framework for euro bank payments treated as if they were domestic.
- Settlement The movement of processed payment funds into the merchant account or bank account.
- Smart routing Routing payments to the acquirer or method most likely to give the best business outcome.
- Soft decline A decline that may succeed on retry under different conditions.
- Split payments Splitting a single transaction’s funds across multiple parties at settlement.
- Standing order A customer-instructed bank payment that repeats on a fixed schedule.
- Strong Customer Authentication A regulatory authentication requirement for many electronic payments under PSD2.
- Subscription payments Recurring payments taken for an ongoing service or membership.
- Surcharge An additional charge added to a payment to cover the merchant’s processing cost.
- SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) A global messaging network used to send international payment instructions between banks.
T
6 terms- Tokenisation Replacing card data with a non-sensitive token that can be used in its place.
- Transaction fee A fee charged per transaction by the gateway, processor or acquirer.
- Transaction ID A unique identifier assigned to a payment by the gateway, acquirer or scheme.
- Travel payment gateway A payment gateway specifically built for the shapes of travel commerce.
- Travel payments system The end-to-end system of payment, reconciliation and reporting around travel bookings.
- Trust account An account where customer funds are held in trust until the underlying service is delivered.
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2 termsKeep exploring travel finance workflows.
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