Glossary

Terms specific to the Collect (payments) API. For platform-wide terms see the platform glossary; for the concepts and how they relate, see Core Concepts.

• 3D Secure (3DS) — a card-authentication step (an extra challenge) handled automatically in hosted flows and tunable via payment rules.
• Adaptive Currency Conversion (ACC) — converting a checkout into the payer’s collectionCurrency when it differs from the session currency. Priced one of two ways: an implicit per-session quote (the default — minted at session creation, refreshed in-place on the hosted page if it expires) or a rate lock supplied as rateLockId. The applied rate is snapshotted onto every transaction attempt. See Adaptive Currency Conversion.
• authState — the field on a transaction carrying its authorization state, any required payer action, and failure detail.
• Authorization → capture → settlement — card-flow stages: funds are approved/reserved (authorization), finalised (capture), then transferred to the merchant (settlement).
• BIN (Bank Identification Number) — the first six digits of a card, used for risk and routing.
• Chargeback — a customer-disputed transaction that is reversed and deducted from settlement.
• Checkout session — the context for collecting a payment from a payer in a collection currency; parent of one or more transactions. Created with an optional rateLockId and collectionCurrency; carries an fxCommit once a conversion has been applied (the lock that priced it is readable as fxCommit.quoteId).
• Collection currency (collectionCurrency) — the currency the payer is actually charged in. Optional on session creation; defaults to the primary currency for payerDetails.location. When it differs from the session currency, ACC applies a conversion (priced per session by default, or by a rate lock).
• Direct API integration — a server-to-server integration where the merchant builds its own UI and calls the APIs directly (card handling requires PCI-DSS).
• Drift (market drift) — market-rate movement beyond an allowed tolerance, which cancels a rate lock before it expires.
• Fraud prevention / risk scoring — internal screening that scores each transaction’s risk before it reaches the processor, protecting against fraud while letting legitimate payments proceed.
• FX commit (fxCommit) — the immutable rate snapshot recorded when a conversion is applied to a session. fxCommit on the session is the latest committed conversion; each transaction attempt also carries its own per-attempt snapshot (collection, fxMidRate, fxAllInRate, fxMarkupBps, fxFee) preserved for reconciliation. Applied by both rate locks and ACC.
• Hosted Checkout — a CrissCross-hosted payment page that renders the available methods and keeps card data out of the merchant’s scope.
• Initiation currency — the currency the merchant prices the session in — the session’s currency field. Distinct from the collection currency (what the payer is charged in) when a conversion is applied.
• Local payment method (LPM) — a payment method specific to a market (e.g. M-Pesa in Kenya, Pay By Bank in South Africa).
• Merchant location — the merchant’s operating country (paymentAttributes), which influences which methods render and what extra security applies.
• Merchant-initiated transaction (MIT) — a payment the merchant initiates later using stored credentials, without live payer interaction.
• Mobile money (MoMo) — a mobile-wallet payment method; payers approve via an STK push (handset prompt) or USSD menu. The provider (M-Pesa, MTN, Airtel, etc.) is the operator.
• Payer — the person making the payment (the merchant’s customer).
• Payment (attempt) — a single charge attempt against a payment method. A transaction can contain more than one.
• Payment method — a supported instrument (card, mobile money, Pay By Bank, bank transfer, etc.).
• Payment rules — no-code conditions and actions that route transactions, choose processors, and show/hide methods.
• PCI-DSS — the card-data security standard; scope is reduced by Hosted Checkout or Secure Fields, and required for Direct API card handling.
• Rate lock (rlk_) — a held FX rate, reusable across many checkout transactions until it expires or is cancelled on market drift. One of the two ways to price ACC. See Rate Locks.
• Refund (provider vs payout refund) — returning collected funds. A provider refund reverses on the original rail; a payout refund sends funds back as a payout when the rail has no refund mechanism (common for mobile money).
• Secure Fields — hosted iframe inputs that tokenize card data client-side so it never touches the merchant’s servers.
• Settlement — the transfer of captured funds to the merchant’s designated bank account, on a schedule (e.g. T+1).
• Settlement rate — the FX rate applied when funds collected in one currency are settled to the merchant in another (e.g. collected in KES, settled in USD); it may differ from the rate at the time of collection.
• Split tender — a session paid by more than one captured transaction; a refund must name the originalTransactionId.
• Tokenization — converting payment details into a reusable token so they can be stored and reused without handling sensitive data.
• Transaction — the full lifecycle of a payment event within a session (every attempt, refund, and adjustment); identified by transactionId.