Online and Electronic Payment Solutions - electronic-payments.co.uk

Summary
Some goods are bought manually without the use of an electronic machine.
Banks dealing with Electronic payments supply what is known as a �merchant service� to their business customers.
For Electronic payments you need a PDQ machine through which credit cards are swiped and a special ID number for your business.

Most people have bought a product from a high street shop and used their credit or debit-card to pay for the product. The shop uses their till to add all the goods you have purchased and then asks to pay for you goods. If you are paying by credit or debit card you hand over your card so that the shop can collect your card number and card expiry date.

Up until a few years ago shops commonly used a paper sales voucher that was placed over your card before a manual imprinter was rolled over the card to collect the details. A shop assistant filled in the sales total and asked you to sign the voucher. These vouchers are still used by some shops.

Recently most shops have moved to electronic machines linked by telephone directly to a bank. Card details are collected from the magnetic strip when the card is �swiped� through the machine. The shop assistant types in the sales amount and details are passed to the bank for approval.

This simple process involves three main elements with specific names:

The bank that card details are passed to is the ACQUIRING BANK;
The shop has a unique ID to identify themselves to the ACQUIRING BANK and this is given to them as part of a MERCHANT SERVICE provided by the ACQUIRING BANK;
The MERCHANT SERVICE will also provide the PDQ Machine that the cards are swiped through.