Glossary D

Daily Discount: The process of deducting the processing fees each day from the merchant's settlement account. Generally, this is withdrawn net of the total amount of the sales for the particular day.

Daily Periodic Rate: This is your annual interest rate expressed on a daily basis. It equals 1/365th of your annual percentage rate.

Data Base Administrator (DBA): Database Administrator. An individual responsible for managing and administering databases.

Database: Structured format for organizing and maintaining easily retrieved information. Simple database examples are: tables and spreadsheets.

D.B.A (Doing Business As): Doing business as (name). Compliance validation levels are based on transaction volume of a DBA or chain of stores (not of a corporation that owns several chains).

Debit Card: A plastic card used for debit transactions, which is linked to a checking account. In general, these transactions are used primarily to purchase goods and services and to obtain cash, for which the cardholder's asset account is debited by the issuer.

Debit Transaction: A transaction initiated when a card is presented as payment for goods and services or at an ATM for cash withdrawals. The amount transacted is automatically deducted from the cardholder's demand deposit or other bank account.

Declined Transaction: A transaction not approved by the card issuer.

Default Accounts: System login account predefined in a manufactured system to allow initial access when system is first put into service.

Default Password: A default password is associated with system administration or service accounts when system is shipped from the manufacturer; usually associated with default account. Default accounts and passwords are published and well known.

Default: Failure to pay a debt, bankruptcy, or an inability or unwillingness to pay your debt. If you default on your credit card account, the issuer will cancel your account and demand full payment of the outstanding balance.

Deferred Payment: Payment put off to a later date or extended over an amount of time. Be careful of skip-a-month offers. Interest still accumulates when you skip a month.

Delinquency Assessment: A fee charged for a late payment.

D.E.S.: Data Encryption Standard. A commonly-used standard method for encrypting and decrypting data; developed by the U.S. National Institute of Standards & Technology. Encryption is critical, with valuable and sensitive information being sent from one computer to another via a network that, technically, can be accessed by anyone. D.E.S. provides a degree of security should the information fall into the wrong hands.

Dial-up Connection: A temporary connection between two computers through a telephone line, normally using a modem.

Disclosure: Terms or conditions for refunds, cancellations, or modifications made to reservations.

Discount Rate: A percentage total charged to process a transaction.

Discover: A company that both issues cards and acquires transactions through merchants. Discover is unlike Visa and MasterCard, which are associations of financial institutions.

Dispute: Credit and charge card bills are governed, in the United States, by the Fair Credit Billing Act, which is included in the Truth in Lending Act (see Truth in Lending Act). If you think your bill is wrong, write to your card issuer at the address listed on your statement. You are required to write no later than sixty days after receiving the first statement where the error appeared. The card issuer must acknowledge your letter within thirty days, and correct the error or explain why it thinks the statement was correct, within two billing cycles (but in no event later than ninety days) after receipt of your letter. You do not have to pay the amount in question while it is being investigated, but you must pay the rest of your bill.

D.M.Z.: aka Demilitarized zone. A network added between a private and a public arrangement to provide an additional layer of security.

D.N.S.: Domain Name System. This is how the Internet links together the thousands of networks that comprise the Web. DNS is used whenever an email is sent or a Web page is accessed. Each computer on the Internet has one or more domain names. Example: In "visa.co.uk," the .co indicates a commercial organization and the .uk indicates that the computer is physically located in the United Kingdom.

Domain name: A unique name which represents each computer on the Internet. (Note that some machines do have more than one domain name.) The DNS converts the domain name request into an IP address.

Download: To copy files from a single computer or server to another via a network or modem.

Draft/Sales Draft: A record (usually on paper) used to document a good or service was purchased.

D.S.S.: Data Security Standard

Dual Control: Process of using two or more separate entities (usually persons) operating with one another to protect sensitive functions or information. Both entities are equally responsible for the physical protection of materials involved in vulnerable transactions. No single person is authorized to access or use the materials (for example, the cryptographic key). For manual key generation, conveyance, loading, storage, and retrieval, dual control requires dividing knowledge of the key among the entities.

Due Date: The date in which a payment is due to a creditor. After that date, a late fee is usually charged and the payment can be recorded as late, or the account can be considered delinquent.