GLOSSARY
Card Present
Transactions where the physical card is read at POS (chip, contactless, or magnetic strip).
Card-present (CP) transactions involve a physical card at the terminal—chip/PIN, contactless (NFC), or fallback magnetic strip. Fraud risk is lower than card-not-present because the card and, often, PIN or device authentication are present.
CP rails often have lower fraud and sometimes lower fees than e-commerce, but counterfeit or lost/stolen card risks remain. Adding wallet options like Apple Pay or Google Pay keeps PANs tokenized.
Related
Related terms.
Acquirer
Bank or payment institution that signs merchants and routes their card transactions into the card networks.
Apple Pay
Mobile wallet by Apple that tokenizes cards for contactless and in-app payments.
Card Fraud
Unauthorized card use or theft of credentials to initiate transactions.
Card Network
Payment network (e.g., Visa/Mastercard) that sets rules and routes card transactions between issuers and acquirers.