Summary of Credit Card Terms - Part 1 (A-B)

Account Number – This is the number given the most exposure on a credit card. Often around 15 letters, and embossed on the physical card that the financial institution will give to a customer.

Additional Cardholder – This is when the credit card holder chooses to allow someone else to use their credit card funds. It is unlikely the additional person will have any obligations in terms of meeting payments that are made to them by the financial institution.

American Express – American Express or AMEX is a large credit card company however it maintains its own relationships with retailers and service providers, unlike MasterCard and Visa.

AMEX – See American Express for summary.

Annual Fee – This is a fixed yearly fee, charged by the credit card company for merely having a credit card. Please note that it is most likely that an APR and Withdrawal fees will be made on top of this.

Annual Percentage Rate – The rate at which you are charged on monies owed as a percentage over the course of a year. Should you owe $100 at 10% APR this would equal $10.

Approval Response – This explains that a payment has been authorized and approved.

APR – See Annual Percentage Rate for summary

ATM – See Automatic Teller Machine for summary.

Automatic Teller Machine – An Automatic Teller Machine or ATM allow cash withdrawals with a credit card provided that a PIN number is provided.

Authentication – This is a method of ensuring that the person completing a transaction is who they say they are.

Authorization – Authorization is a means of reducing credit card fraud. This is where the credit card issuer decided whether a transaction should go ahead, when the amount is larger than the pre-agreed transactional limit.

Authorization Amount – The amount at which authorization is needed (See Authorization summary)

Authorization Code – The code that the credit card issuer provides to indicate that they are happy for the transaction to go ahead (See Authorization summary)

Authorization Date – When a transaction was authorized (See Authorization summary)

Authorization Only – Varying with card type, this is a means of reserving funds, where a purchase will not be granted to take place immediately.

Authorized Transaction – This refers to a transaction that can go ahead per the response of the card issuer (See Authorization summary).

Bad Credit – See Bad Credit Rating for summary

Bad Credit Rating – This is a term associated with a person or a company that have failed to honour fiscal obligations in the past. It is most likely they have either completed payments late, have been bankrupt of perhaps exceeded their pre-agreed card limit.

Balance Transfer – This refers to the process of moving credit card debt from one or several credit cards to another credit card.

Balance Transfer Fee – This is a fee charged for a balance transfer (See Balance Transfer summary) which is waived by some, where others will charge around 1%-5%.

Bank Account – Where the merchants funds will be placed.

Bad Credit – See Bad Credit Rating for summary

This article is written by Devin Gilliland publisher for credit-wisdom.com and jetclient.com
This article is free for republishing
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