Credit Card

There are many different cards that can be used for payment purposes for example there is a charge card which is different from a credit card in that a charge card requires that you pay up the full balance before the end of the month, whilst credit cards on the other hand require the costumer to pay for the balance of their card by charging interest on the balance.

Credit cards are normally issued by credit unions and banks, credit cards are similar to other payment cards and are available in the standard ISO 7810 size. For you to get a credit card first you have to get approval from a credit provider, after which you will be issued with a card with which to make purchases with at shops that accept the cards. When buy anything or pay for a service with a credit card you are agreeing to pay the issuer of the card be it the local bank or the credit union, when you pay for anything with the card you consent to this agreement by signing a receipt that has your card details and the price of the good(s) bought and by entering your PIN number, in some shops you the owner might even require verbal and electronic authorization by either phoning or emailing the issuer this is also known as a CNP transaction.

Card/cardholder not present transactions are carried out to verify whether or not the cardholder has enough credit to cover for the purchase, or to check if the cardholder is the real owner of the card and whether the card is valid. Each credit card has a magnetic stripe on it which contains data which is fed into the Point of Sale system POS the merchants which is connected to the card issuer, the POS is used to make the verification, once the verification takes place then the transaction is complete and you can then take your goods.