Glossary of terms

The method by which a merchant compares the business undertaken at his electronic data capture terminal with that recorded by the acquirer and credited to his bank account.

The time taken for a terminal to obtain a reply from a remote computer system.

A facility, which may be configured into certain EFTPOS, which enables the merchant to enter a gratuity after a transaction, has been completed at the terminal.

A request by either the card issuer or cardholder wishing to obtain further information about a particular transaction.

A transfer of funds to complete one or more transactions.

A shift refers to transactions produced at a single terminal or outlet. A shift may cover any number of periods during a day (subject to a terminal's capacity for storing separate shifts) or may be equal to a day.

The Mastercard equivalent of VbV (Now also known as MasterCard SecureCode).

Checking a person's identity by comparing his/her signature with a previously supplied specimen. To date, this has been done almost entirely manually but electronic signature verification systems are beginning to appear

The Streamline outlet identifier. It is an eight-digit number

A card is swiped when it is passed through an electronic POS terminal and the magnetic stripe is read.

A device, which allows a user to send data to, receive data from and invoke the functions of a remote computer system.

Textphones consist of a keyboard and small display. People with hearing and/or speech impairments may find it difficult or impossible to use a standard telephone. For these people a textphone may be useful as they can type their conversation and this can be read by a similar textphone, over a telephone line. Both incoming and outgoing conversations appear on the screen.
 

A unique identification given to a terminal. The first part is registered with APACS to identify manufacturer/merchant/ supplier.
 

People with hearing and / or speech impairments may find it difficult or impossible to use a standard telephone. Typetalk enables these people to make contact with standard telephone numbers by using their own textphone. They do this by entering a Typetalk prefix in front of the standard telephone number and this routes the call via the Typetalk operator who acts as an intermediary between the textphone user and the speaking person.