Understand Transaction Descriptor Or Merchant Descriptor

It appears on the credit card statement or any other bank statement of the customer that contains details of the company and merchant involved in the particular transaction.

The purpose of the merchant descriptor is to identify who the payment was made to. Whenever a merchant goes for the merchant account, he or she is asked to provide the merchant descriptor as well. 

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF HAVING TRANSACTION DESCRIPTOR OR MERCHANT DESCRIPTOR?

Having a transaction descriptor can save the merchant from a chargeback. This is the most important benefit of having the transaction descriptor.

A descriptor gives clear information about the merchant and the purchase.

This helps a customer to quickly identify the transaction.

That also results in a low chance of the chargeback from the customer’s end.

According to the various reports from the card networks, most chargebacks are filed simply because the customer did not identify the transaction.

Now you know, as a merchant you should give attention to the merchant descriptor. If this is the case, you need to gather more information about the Transaction Descriptor or Merchant Descriptor.

There are two kinds of Transaction Descriptor:

Static Descriptor – A Static Descriptor remains the same for all the transactions made by the merchant.

Dynamic Descriptor – And in this case, it varies and includes the details of the purchased goods or service.

You must be wondering which one is better and what should you get for your business.

A Static Descriptor is often called Hard Descriptor. If you have a business that sells one kind of goods or service then you can go for this. A static descriptor generally contains the company and location in form of the zip code.

Whereas, the Dynamic Descriptor may change with each transaction as it contains product specific details. If you own a store that sells a variety of products then you should choose the dynamic descriptor.

THE TRANSACTION DESCRIPTOR OR MERCHANT DESCRIPTOR

Contact Information – Say the customer wants to contact the merchant but she is unable to because of the lack of contact information available to her. She may look at the credit card statement, if she finds the contact information there, it would save the merchant from one chargeback. Adding the contact number is considered as a clever move for a merchant.

Company Name/Business Name – This is a must as the customer is most likely to identify the merchant on the basis of the company name. Never forget to add the company name to the merchant descriptor.

Website Information – The merchant can also put the Website address to the transaction descriptor. This also helps the merchant to identify the transaction.

Merchant Address – You are not required to add the complete address. However, the zip code can also work for the merchant.

We also provide other merchant processing services and high-risk merchant account services. Also, you can try our toll-free number +1 (888) 622 – 6875 and try the 24/7 email support.