Glossary
Billing descriptor
A billing descriptor is the merchant name the buyer sees on their bank statement and in the charge notification.
The descriptor is set at onboarding and tied to the MID. It is usually a short brand name, sometimes with a domain or support phone number.
An unclear descriptor is a common cause of chargebacks: the customer doesn't recognize the charge and disputes it as fraud. It happens most often when payments go through an agent and a different name shows up on the statement.
Best practice: make the descriptor match your website name and tell the customer in the receipt email exactly how the charge will appear.
Related terms
ChargebackA chargeback is a forced reversal of a payment initiated by the buyer's bank when the customer disputes a t…MID (merchant ID)A MID is the unique number under which the acquirer registers a merchant and processes its payments.Approval rateThe approval rate is the share of payment attempts the bank approves out of all attempts.
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