Credit Card Glossary
Credit Card Processor
A credit card processor is a company that performs authorization and settlement of credit card payments, usually handling several types of credit and payment cards (such as Visa, MasterCard, and American Express).
If merchants wish to sell their products to cardholders, they retain the services of one or more processors who handle the credit cards that the merchant wishes to accept. When a merchant retains the services of a credit card processor, it is issued a merchant ID.