<Li> Affinity partner: Some institutions lend their names to an issuer to attract customers that have a strong relationship with that institution, and get paid a fee or a percentage of the balance for each card issued using their name . Examples of typical affinity partners are sports teams, universities, charities, professional organizations, and major retailers . </Li> <Li> Insurance providers: Insurers underwriting various insurance protections offered as credit card perks, for example, Car Rental Insurance, Purchase Security, Hotel Burglary Insurance, Travel Medical Protection etc . </Li> <P> The flow of information and money between these parties--always through the card associations--is known as the interchange, and it consists of a few steps . </P> <Ul> <Li> Authorization: The cardholder presents the card as payment to the merchant and the merchant submits the transaction to the acquirer (acquiring bank). The acquirer verifies the credit card number, the transaction type and the amount with the issuer (card - issuing bank) and reserves that amount of the cardholder's credit limit for the merchant . An authorization will generate an approval code, which the merchant stores with the transaction . </Li> <Li> Batching: Authorized transactions are stored in "batches", which are sent to the acquirer . Batches are typically submitted once per day at the end of the business day . If a transaction is not submitted in the batch, the authorization will stay valid for a period determined by the issuer, after which the held amount will be returned to the cardholder's available credit (see authorization hold). Some transactions may be submitted in the batch without prior authorizations; these are either transactions falling under the merchant's floor limit or ones where the authorization was unsuccessful but the merchant still attempts to force the transaction through . (Such may be the case when the cardholder is not present but owes the merchant additional money, such as extending a hotel stay or car rental .) </Li> <Li> Clearing and Settlement: The acquirer sends the batch transactions through the credit card association, which debits the issuers for payment and credits the acquirer . Essentially, the issuer pays the acquirer for the transaction . </Li> <Li> Funding: Once the acquirer has been paid, the acquirer pays the merchant . The merchant receives the amount totaling the funds in the batch minus either the "discount rate", "mid-qualified rate", or "non-qualified rate" which are tiers of fees the merchant pays the acquirer for processing the transactions . </Li> <Li> Chargebacks: A chargeback is an event in which money in a merchant account is held due to a dispute relating to the transaction . Chargebacks are typically initiated by the cardholder . In the event of a chargeback, the issuer returns the transaction to the acquirer for resolution . The acquirer then forwards the chargeback to the merchant, who must either accept the chargeback or contest it . </Li> </Ul>

A credit card is an example of which type of credit