Credit card acquirer

A credit card acquirer is responsible for processing credit card payments on the Internet. It offers sellers credit card payment for all major credit cards, from Visa to MasterCard to American Express, Diners and JCB.

If a retailer offers its customers the option of paying by credit card, they first need a credit card acceptance contract for eCommerce, which is issued by the credit card acquirer.

After completing a transaction, the seller must transmit his customer`s credit card data to the credit card acquirer. For this, the seller also needs a Payment Service Provider (PSP) who takes care of the technical processing. The payment service provider itself does not issue any credit card acceptance contracts. He is primarily responsible for the secure transmission of customers` credit card data. In most cases, the credit card acquirer and the payment service provider consist of two different companies.

Sellers who have a credit card acceptance contract contact the payment service provider to technically process the connection of the shop to the credit card company. A direct connection of an Internet shop to a credit card company is usually not possible.