Glossary

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Glossary / Evaluation and implementation guide

Payment Gateway

A payment gateway is the service that securely transmits checkout payment data to processors and returns an approval or decline. It handles authorization, not the movement of funds.

Settlement, when money actually reaches your account, happens afterward through acquiring relationships. Orchestration sits above gateways and coordinates several of them.

A practical example

Example: a customer pays at checkout. The gateway encrypts the card details, sends them for authorization, and returns an approval in seconds. The money arrives in the merchant account days later through settlement.

What to evaluate before investing

  • Ask which payment methods and currencies the gateway supports in each market you sell to.
  • Check the approval path: what data the gateway sends, how it handles 3-D Secure, and where declines are logged.
  • Confirm how refunds, partial captures, and disputes flow back into your order system.

Limitations and tradeoffs

A gateway's approval rates and fees depend on your acquiring setup and customer mix, so results from one merchant do not transfer to another.

Plan your next step with MeshLine

Connect this decision to your automation, organic marketing and customer lifecycle management. In a MeshLine demo, discuss your existing tools, the scope you need and how to measure the result.