T&E CARD: Travel and Entertainment card issued by a private, non-bank company which deals directly with the cardholder and merchant and which generally requires payment in full monthly.

T&E MERCHANT: An airline, car-rental company, lodging, or restaurant establishment whose primary function is to provide travel/entertainment-related services.

TCP/IP: The system networks use to communicate with each other on the Internet. It stands for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol.

Telephone Bill Payment: A service that permits a customer to pay bills electronically. The customer gives a corporation the authority to debit his or her account for a specific amount or within a specified range of amounts.

Terminal Based: A system that captures card transactions and holds them until settlement.

Terminated Merchant File (TMF): A file listing the names of merchants and their principals whose bankcard relationships have been terminated for some reason by an acquirer. Operated jointly by VISA and MasterCard.

Thick Consolidator: One of four models of electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP). The biller sends all of its billing data to a central service provider that consolidates electronic bills from different billers so that the consumer has a single site of access for viewing billing information and making payments electronically. Other models include: Biller Direct, Thin Consolidator and Customer Consolidation.

Thin Consolidator: One of four models of electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP). The biller sends summary billing data to a central service provider that consolidates electronic bills from different billers so that the customer has a single site of access for viewing billing information and making payments electronically. The customer may access full billing data through the billers web site. Other models include: Biller Direct, Thick Consolidator and Customer Consolidation.

Third-Party Processing: Processing of transactions by service providers acting under contract to card issuers or acquirers. First Data Corporation (FDR/FDC) is a third-party processor.

Ticket: Another name for the sales slip or its 'monetary value' that results when a credit card purchase is made.

Transaction: Any event that causes a change in an organization's financial position or net worth, resulting from normal activity. Advance of funds, purchase of goods at a retailer or when a borrower activates a revolving line of credit. Activities affecting a deposit account carried out at the request of the account owner. One example of a transaction is the process that takes place when a cardholder makes a purchase with a credit card.

Transaction Date: The actual date on which a transaction occurs. Used in recording and tracking transactions.

Transaction Fees: Service costs charged to a merchant on a per-transaction basis.