Credit card companies Acquirer Issuer Point of sale Card owner Licence agreement Licence agreement Goods/ services acquired Purchase price reimbursed Merchant service charge Purchase price reimbursed Interchange fee Purchase price Card charges Credit card companies, such as MasterCard or Visa, are represented locally by what are known as acquirers and issuers. The aquirer (e.g. SIX Multipay) supports the points of sale (e.g. retailers) and processes the transactions. The issuer (e.g. Viseca Card Services) issues the cards with the help of the banks as its sales partners. The goods or services are acquired before the actual transaction chain starts. Card owners acquire them from points of sale sale that accept payment by credit card (e.g. retailers or cinemas). The points of sale send the acquirer records of the acquisitions and are reimbursed the purchase prices by the acquirer. The payments are credited to the bank accounts of the points of sale. The acquirer acts as intermediary, who processes (check, validate, credit) transactions for the points of sale. The acquirer charges the points of sale fees known as merchant service charge for this service. The acquirer is then paid the purchase prices by the issuer . The acquirer pays what are called interchange fees for this service. The issuer records the purchase prices as outstanding amounts. These are then offset by debiting card owners’ bank accounts. The card owners pay the card issuer an annual basic fee for the use of their credit cards. Next Back