Reseller
A company that sells payment acceptance under its own brand while the licence, the merchant account and the settlement belong to somebody else. The arrangement is common and legitimate. What matters to a merchant is knowing it: the entity named in the merchant agreement, not the brand on the proposal, is the one whose licence and obligations actually apply.
Why it matters to a merchant
Nothing is wrong with buying from a reseller, and a good one is worth what they charge in service. The one thing worth doing is reading the merchant agreement for the entity name, because that is who the licence, the settlement obligation and the regulator's supervision actually attach to — and it is frequently not the brand on the front of the proposal. If the two differ and nobody said so, that is the finding.
Read more: How to check a payment provider is actually licensed
Where this comes up
Pages on this site that deal with this in context:
Related terms
In this section: Who does what