Payment Methods Products

Credit cards, debit cards routed over the PIN debit networks, Apple Pay and Google Pay, stored cards and recurring billing, bank transfers, payment links, invoices and the virtual terminal are not the same product. Each carries its own scheme rules, its own reversal window, its own evidence requirements and its own cost. This document sets out the terms that apply to each, in addition to the RapidCents Services Agreement.

1. What this document covers

This document sets out the terms that apply to each payment method RapidCents supports, in addition to the RapidCents Services Agreement. It is incorporated into that Agreement by clause F.6, and capitalized terms have the meaning given there.

A payment method applies to you only where RapidCents has enabled it for your account. Enabling one depends on your business type, your approved merchant category, underwriting, the Network Rules, the rules of the scheme or system behind the method, and any registration that method requires.

Where a method’s own scheme rules, operating rules or provider terms impose an obligation on you, you must meet it. Those rules change without RapidCents’ involvement and apply as they stand at the time of a transaction.

2. Payment methods are not interchangeable

A payment is not just a payment. Each method has its own reversal window, its own evidence rules, its own settlement timing and its own cost — and a method that looks cheaper can carry a longer window in which the money can be taken back.

Four things differ by method, and each of them can cost you money:

• Who can reverse the payment, and for how long. A card payment can be charged back by the issuer months after the sale. A bank debit can be returned as unauthorized well beyond that in some systems. A PIN-verified debit at a terminal is far harder to reverse. Clause C.4 of the Agreement governs chargebacks.
• What defends it. A card-present transaction authenticated by chip and PIN is defended by the terminal record. A keyed or online transaction is defended by the evidence in clause H.4 — delivery, authorization, policies shown, customer correspondence — and by nothing else.
• When the funds are final. Authorization is not settlement, and settlement is not finality. Funds credited to your balance can still be removed under clause C.4, clause C.7 and clause F.9 of the Agreement.
• What it costs. Interchange, network fees and scheme fees differ by method, by card product and by presentation. The Fee Disclosures explain how that is built.

3. Credit and debit cards

RapidCents supports acceptance of the card brands listed in your account configuration, which may include Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover and Diners Club. Acceptance of a brand depends on that brand approving your business and on any separate agreement that brand requires.

You will accept cards in accordance with the Network Rules and with clause C.3, clause G.6 and clause G.7 of the Agreement. In particular you will not set a minimum or maximum transaction amount except where the rules and the law permit, will not require identification as a condition of acceptance except as the rules permit, will not split a single sale across multiple transactions to avoid a limit or a rule, and will not process a transaction for a sale made by another business.

A card-present transaction must be completed on the certified terminal and interface the card supports — contactless, chip or, where still supported, magnetic stripe — and must not be keyed in to avoid a decline, a verification step or a fee. Keying a card that is physically present in order to bypass a decline is a Network Rule violation and shifts liability to you.

A card-not-present transaction — online, by payment link, by invoice, or in the virtual terminal — carries the dispute liability for a transaction the cardholder did not authorize. Address verification, card verification value checks and, where available, 3-D Secure reduce that risk; using them is your decision and your responsibility. Clause H.8 of the Agreement describes the automated controls RapidCents applies and what it does not promise.

4. Debit cards and PIN debit networks

A debit card transaction may be routed over a global brand’s network or over one of the PIN debit networks enabled on the card. A transaction authorized by PIN at a certified terminal is authenticated at the point of sale and draws directly on the cardholder’s account.

Debit interchange on a card issued by a larger institution is capped by federal regulation, and a debit transaction generally costs less than a credit transaction on the same amount. Each debit network operates its own rules, fee structure and dispute process, which differ from the card networks’; a PIN-authenticated transaction is reversible in the circumstances those rules provide rather than through the credit chargeback process.

Federal law requires that at least two unaffiliated networks be available for a debit transaction and that the merchant, not the issuer, chooses the routing. RapidCents configures routing for your account and will tell you what the configuration is on request.

You will not surcharge a debit card transaction, will not process a debit transaction as a credit transaction or the reverse in order to change the cost or the routing, and will follow the network rules on PIN entry, device handling and receipts.

5. Digital wallets

Where enabled, RapidCents supports Apple Pay and Google Pay in person at a contactless terminal and online in a supported browser or application.

A wallet transaction is a card transaction. The wallet presents a device token rather than the card number, the underlying card and its issuer determine the interchange and the dispute rights, and the Network Rules apply as they would to any other card transaction on that brand.

Using a wallet requires you to comply with the wallet provider’s own terms, branding rules and technical requirements, including how the payment mark is displayed, where the button may appear, and the domain verification a web integration requires. A wallet provider may suspend or withdraw your access to its wallet, and RapidCents cannot override that decision.

Wallet authentication on the cardholder’s device can shift liability for an unauthorized transaction to the issuer in some cases. That is determined by the Network Rules and the wallet rules, not by RapidCents, and RapidCents does not warrant any particular liability outcome.

6. Card on file, recurring billing, subscriptions and instalments

Storing a card and charging it later is the method that produces the most disputes. Get consent in a form you can produce, tell the customer before each charge where the rules require it, and make cancelling as easy as signing up.

Where RapidCents stores a card credential for you, it is stored as a token. You never hold the card number, and clause D.2 of the Agreement governs what you may and may not store.

Clause G.4 of the Agreement governs recurring payments, subscriptions and free trials and applies in full. In addition, you will: obtain the customer’s express consent to the amount, frequency and duration before the first charge, and keep the record of it under clause H.4; disclose what happens when a trial ends and what the customer will be charged; give the notice the Network Rules require before a recurring charge, a charge after a trial, or a change in amount; and provide a cancellation method that is at least as easy to use as the method of signing up.

You will stop charging a stored credential immediately when the customer cancels, when an authorization is revoked, when a subscription ends, or when the issuer or RapidCents tells you the credential may no longer be used. Continuing to charge after cancellation is the single most common cause of a dispute RapidCents cannot defend.

Where an instalment or deferred payment plan is offered, you will disclose the full schedule, the total amount and any charge for the plan before the customer agrees, and you remain responsible for the whole amount if the plan is disputed.

7. Bank transfers and direct debits

Where RapidCents makes an ACH debit or credit method available to you, clause 4 of the Financial Services Terms governs it, including the authorization and notice obligations, the return and reversal risk, and the limits RapidCents may apply.

A bank payment is not instant and is not final on receipt. Treat it as unsettled until the return window for the system it travelled over has closed, and do not release goods or services on the strength of a credit alone where the value is material to you.

8. Where a payment is taken: terminal, online, link, invoice and virtual terminal

The same card can be accepted through a terminal, a hosted checkout, an embedded checkout, a payment link, an invoice or the virtual terminal. The acceptance channel changes the evidence you will have and the liability you carry, not the Network Rules that apply.

A transaction taken through the virtual terminal, a payment link or an invoice is a card-not-present transaction even where the customer is standing in front of you, and it carries card-not-present liability. Where a card is physically present, use the terminal.

You will present, on the page or document where the customer pays, everything clause G.2 of the Agreement requires: who you are, what is being sold, the total amount and currency, and your refund, cancellation and delivery policies. A payment link or an invoice that states an amount and nothing else is not compliant and is not defensible in a dispute.

Your billing descriptor must identify you as the customer would recognize you, under clause G.5. An unrecognized descriptor produces disputes that no evidence can defend.

9. Refunds, voids and reversals by method

Clause C.5 of the Agreement and the Refund and Cancellation Policy govern refunds. A refund must be made to the payment method used for the original transaction and for no more than its amount, and must not be made in cash or by another method to a card transaction.

A void cancels an authorization before settlement and returns the amount immediately. A refund reverses a settled transaction and takes the time the method requires to reach the customer — which for a card is set by the issuer, not by RapidCents.

Refunding does not cancel a chargeback already raised, and a refund issued after a chargeback can result in the customer being credited twice at your expense. Check before refunding a disputed transaction.

A fee charged on the original transaction is not automatically returned when a transaction is refunded; your Fee Schedule states what is returned and what is not.

10. Adding, changing and removing a payment method

RapidCents may add, change, limit, suspend or withdraw a payment method, for you or generally, where a network, scheme, provider or regulator requires it, where a certification lapses, where your use of the method breaches a rule, where a risk or compliance condition under clause B.5, clause H.3 or clause H.8 of the Agreement applies, or where the method ceases to be commercially available to RapidCents.

RapidCents will give reasonable notice where it can, and may act immediately where notice would prevent it from meeting an obligation or from preventing loss.

Withdrawal of a method does not end the Agreement and does not entitle you to a refund of fees already charged. Your right to end the Agreement without penalty at any time under clause A.3 is unaffected.

These terms are governed by the law stated in clause E.7 of the Agreement, and a dispute about them is resolved as clause E.7 and clause H.10 provide. Questions go to [email protected] or +1 (844) 957-2743.

Governing law

The law stated in clause E.7 of the RapidCents Services Agreement: the laws of the State of Delaware and the federal laws of the United States (E.7 and H.10).