For those who prefer your Answer Geek info to come in short, sweet, digestible bits, this may not be the column for you. The Key Players Let's start out by identifying the four basic players in a typical credit card transaction. A card acceptor is anyone set up to accept credit cards in payment for goods or services.
Acquirers occupy a spot in between card acceptors and card issuers.
When a cashier at a restaurant takes your credit card and runs it through a card reader, the information on the card is passed on to an acquirer, who decides whether or not to approve the purchase and then guarantees payment to the restaurant. Often, card issuers are also acquirers. These terms are crucial for you to make sense of what follows. In all cases, the first digit represents the credit card system. If your credit card number starts with a 4, you've got a Visa card.