Credit Card Processing
Credit card processing is the transaction lifecycle that connects merchant acceptance, issuer authorization, capture, clearing, settlement, refunds, and disputes.
Point-of-sale processing terms for terminals, gateways, processors, card acceptance, mobile POS, and manual card-imprinter evidence.
Point-of-sale processing and terminal terms describe how merchants capture payment credentials, send transactions for authorization, batch or settle sales, and reconcile card or wallet payments. This branch covers POS terminals, mPOS, payment gateways, payment processors, credit card processing, point of sale, and manual card imprinters.
Use these pages when a merchant statement, checkout record, terminal log, gateway response, processor report, or chargeback file depends on how the point-of-sale transaction was captured and routed.
| Term | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Point of Sale | The checkout moment or place where a customer pays a merchant. |
| POS Terminal | Hardware or software endpoints that capture payment credentials and send transactions for authorization. |
| mPOS | Mobile point-of-sale setups using phones, tablets, or portable readers. |
| Payment Gateway | Secure transmission of card or digital-payment data between merchant systems and processors. |
| Payment Processor | Transaction handling between merchants, acquirers, card networks, and issuers. |
| Credit Card Processing | Authorization, clearing, settlement, and fee flow for card payments. |
| Knuckle-Buster | Manual card-imprinter evidence and legacy fallback processing. |
Start with the transaction record. Determine whether the evidence comes from the terminal, mobile reader, gateway, processor, acquirer, card network, issuer, or merchant system, then match the term to that control point.
Choose a subsection first. Deeper term pages live inside each subsection, which keeps large topic hubs readable.
Credit card processing is the transaction lifecycle that connects merchant acceptance, issuer authorization, capture, clearing, settlement, refunds, and disputes.
A knuckle-buster is a manual card imprinter formerly used to capture embossed card details when electronic authorization was unavailable.
Mobile point of sale uses a phone, tablet, portable reader, or mobile terminal to record sales and accept payments away from a fixed checkout.
A payment gateway protects, formats, and transmits payment requests and responses between merchant checkout systems and payment-processing services.
A payment processor handles or routes payment transaction messages for merchants, acquirers, issuers, and other payment-system participants.
Point of sale is the checkout point where a merchant records a sale, calculates the amount due, accepts payment, and creates transaction evidence.
A POS terminal is a payment endpoint that captures card or wallet transaction data, applies cardholder-verification steps, and sends authorization requests.