Merchant Account Glossary - F

Face-To-Face
In a face-to-face environment, transactions take place with the cardholder and merchant face-to-face.  The cardholder either swipes the terminal or signs an imprinted sales draft.  This type of transaction has the lowest discount rate as it is considered low risk.

Federal Tax ID Number
This is a 9-digit number assigned by the IRS and is used to track business taxes.  All applications are required to specify their Federal Tax ID number.  Some smaller merchants who are sole-proprietors may use their personal Social Security Number in place of a Federal Tax ID number.

First Data Corporation (FDC)
This company processes a portion of our merchant’s credit card transactions.  First Data is based in Omaha, Nebraska.  They are formally known as First Data Resources (FDR).  The two names are mistakenly used interchangeably.

First Data Resources (FDR)
See First Data Corporation

Full Business Name
The full name of a business, which directly corresponds to a Federal Tax ID Number.  When submitting an application to Ballistic Merchant Services a merchant must use their full business name.