resource center glossary of terms

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Exceptions
Transaction in some way abnormal to the bankcard system, such as questionable charges and chargebacks.

Expiration Date
The date, embossed on a bankcard, beyond which the card becomes invalid.

Factoring
The coercion or bribery of a legitimate merchant to process another merchant’s transactions (often fraudulent) in return for payment.

FALA
Acronym or abbreviation for First Alabama Bank. Their phone number is 800-624-7766.

FFB
Acronym or abbreviation for First Fidelity Bank, also known as First Union North.

FI
Financial Institution-Used as part of the TID. Also indicates what relationship the merchant falls under. Example: 127 indicates the merchant is under the Bank Of The West relationship group.

Fictitious Account Number
A "made-up" cardholder account number (used for fraudulent purposes) that does not exist and has never existed.

Finance Charge
The fee assessed by the issuer on a cardholder’s rollover credit balance to cover the cost of providing the credit card loan.

Financial Institution
Any organization in the business of moving, investing or lending money, dealing in financial instruments or providing financial services. Includes commercial banks, thrifts, federal and state savings banks, savings and loan associations and credit unions. Refers to any bank, credit unions or other entity that distribute cash.

Float
The period of time between the purchase and the billing for goods or services.

Floor Limit
A dollar amount set by the acquirer in accordance with MasterCard and Visa rules and regulations. The merchant must obtain authorization for any transaction over the floor limit.

Folio Number
Usually a room number.

Force
Function performed at a POS device that allows the merchant to enter a transaction if unable to process under the regular sale key. Also referred to as an Off-line Sale and Post Auth.

Foreign Network
Reference used to refer to another processor network. Example: VisaNet , Mapp, etc.

Formset
A carbon set of two or more copies used by the merchant as a sales draft for bankcard transactions.

FTB
First Tennessee Bank.

Fulfillment
The acquirer’s response to an issuer’s retrieval request for a sales draft. The acquirer supplies the issuer with the original draft or a clear reproduction. The fulfillment record confirms the response and initiates reimbursement to the acquirer for fulfilling the request.

Global Payment Systems
The primary data transport communications facility that links all MasterCard customers and MasterCard data processing centers into a single on-line financial network (also called a packet-switching network.) Global Payment Systems separates communications processing from financial applications to transmit messages over a single communications network. Used to be referred to as Banknet.

Gold Card
A card program offering higher credit lines and expanded services. Qualifications for cardholder applicants are generally more stringent than for the standard card.

Good Faith
An attempt by a member to resolve a dispute with another member in writing. A good faith attempt at resolution must be made before filing a compliance case.

Grace Period
The span of time between the statement date and the payment due date during which no interest is charged if the amount is paid in full.

Gratuit
The name of the retail software. Encompass software is available on all terminal types except Zon Jr Plus and the Hypercom. Encompass follows the Hybrid protocol.

Hard Copy
Data in paper form.

Help Desk
Services provided to the merchant by an acquirer, sometimes through a third party processor. The help desk responds to terminal problems, provides repair or replacement, and assists the merchant with questions about the point-of-sale equipment or authorization procedure.

Highly Suspect Merchant
A merchant location where an unusually high number of suspect transactions have occurred in proportion to the merchant’s total transaction volume.

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