Credit Cards

A credit card is a card for payment of goods and services. They can be used worldwide, both in real daily business and personal life as well as in online money transactions. It is issued in the case of MasterCard or Visa by banks in cooperation with the credit card companies, or - in the case of Diners and American Express - directly from the card company. Those four companies sharing the total European credit card market. The name originated from credit to the fact that credit cards provide the cardholder is often a loan.

The term credit is used internationally is not uniform. In the German speaking countries so that both real credit cards and charge cards, Daily charge cards, debit cards or debit cards and prepaid cards called (with the respective terms below). In general, only those debit and prepaid cards are considered credit cards that have the acceptance marks one of the credit card organization and are therefore accepted in some places there, which can be paid with real credit cards and charge cards. In contrast, the term in other parts of the world is used in an abnormal way. Thus, it is common for example in English speaking countries to refer to only real credit card and (partially) pre-paid credit cards as a credit to be counted while the latter only because of their name on credit cards, and this view is by no means uncontroversial. Other cards are like debit or charge cards, regardless of whether they have the signs of acceptance of credit card organization generally regarded as independent forms of card payment.

The most common of credit card in Germany is a Visa, MasterCard or AMEX charge card. The credit card business is as well as the debit card business from the issuing, the card issuing and merchant acquiring, the Akzeptantenabrechnung.

The fees and transaction costs borne by the dealer from whom the cardholder buys its goods or services. They are collected in the form of a discount (discount). The amount of the discount varies by industry and billings of the seller and is usually dictated by the credit card company. In exceptional cases, the dealer can also discuss this matter. Are usually 3% to 5% plus a fixed fee (0,10-0,25 euros) per transaction - depending on the sector but the sentence can be only 1% or 10%. In addition, the seller monthly fixed costs arising from making the systems. Individual contractors with a very high volume of transactions received from the banks and occasionally at special rates. In return, provided the issuing bank to the seller referred to in compliance with all procedures a payment liability, including bad debts. Rule, however, that the fees are much higher than for the payment processing with a Maestro or ATM card.