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How Card Payments Work — From Tap to Settlement
Every card transaction passes through several stages: authorization, clearing, and settlement. A customer presents a card; the merchant’s device or gateway submits an authorization request; the issuer approves or declines; later, funds are cleared and settled to the merchant account. Fees are shared between card networks, issuing banks, and the acquirer/processor.
Reliable providers offer PCI‑compliant solutions, tokenization to protect sensitive data, and reporting that helps reconcile payouts. Many vendors also support recurring billing, stored credentials, and 3‑D Secure for additional authentication.
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