So far this series has followed a payment and named the parties along the way. Now follow the money, because each party takes a piece, and those pieces explain most of the decisions that come later. Take a $100 purchase. Every figure here is illustrative, and real rates vary widely.…

Cards look alike in a wallet, but what sits behind them differs. The type of card mostly tells you one thing: where the money comes from when the cardholder pays. With a credit card, the issuer lends the money. It pays for the purchase up front, and the cardholder repays…

In the last post, a tap travelled from a coffee shop to a bank and back in two seconds (usually, in 2 seconds, but can go beyond that – and this overall acceptable response time varies by countries/regions). Several parties handled it on the way, and the same few names…

I’ve worked in payments for a long time, and card transactions still surprise smart people. A hold that won’t release. An amount that changes after you’ve paid. A refund that takes a week. So I’m going to write about them, in short posts. Each tries to say what to expect,…