What is Card Acquiring?

Discover what card acquiring is and why it’s an essential part of ecommerce.

Card acquiring is the process of collecting card-based payments that have been accepted by stores or retailers. When you go to a store, make a purchase and pay using your credit card, your cardholder information is first sent to the merchant’s acquiring bank/processor for routing through the card network, and then sent to your issuing bank for approval. 

How Does Card Acquiring Work?

Through card acquiring, the acquiring bank/processor will aggregate and separate payments and then send these to the customer’s respective card issuers.  This is typically done via the respective Card Scheme networks, like Visa and MasterCard, and is also known as ‘interchange’. Behind each seemingly instant transaction in card acquiring is a complex process that results in the consumer card payment either being authorized or declined. 

What Is An Acquiring Bank?

The acquiring bank, is also known as a merchant acquiring bank or simply the “acquirer”. They are a bank or financial institution that processes credit and/or debit card payments for merchants via card networks such as Visa, Mastercard, Discover, China UnionPay, American Express, Diners Club, Japan Credit Bureau, and Indian Rupay. Most banks are familiar with processing local credit card transactions. Dealing with cross-border transactions can make things more complicated for businesses operating globally.

Why Is Local Card Acquiring Important for International Business?

Having a local card acquirer in every country you do business in helps improve acceptance rates from customers in those countries. Additionally, many consumers around the globe use credit and debit cards that aren’t approved for international transactions. You’ll need to work with local card acquirers to accept card payments from those consumers.

How Can Merchants Easily Enjoy the Benefits of Local Card Acquiring?

Managing relationships with multiple acquiring banks is too complex and time-consuming for most merchants. That’s why Rapyd Collect provides you with a single partner and a single solution for local card acquiring across international markets. This gives you the benefit of higher authorization rates, lower transaction fees, and faster settlement.=

Image Courtesy of Starling Bank. Make Money Equal.