Mid Only - Paysmart

Merchant ID

A Merchant ID is required to take payments by card.

What is a MID

Why is it essential in the payments industry

Merchant IDs (MIDs) integrate with online gateways, virtual terminals, and card machines. They are easy to switch for better rates and come in three types: Card Present (card machines/EPOS systems), Card Not Present (virtual terminals), and ECOM (websites/Pay-By-Links). These can be merged into a single MID to handle all payment types.

What is a

Merchant ID?

Merchant ID (MID) is a unique 6-15-digit code assigned to a business by a credit card processor when the business sets up a merchant account. This ID is crucial for processing credit and debit card payments, as it identifies the business and ensures that funds from customer transactions are correctly routed to the business’s bank account

Think of it like an address for your business in the payment processing world. Without a MID, the payment networks wouldn’t know where to send the money from your customers.

types of

Merchant IDs

Cardholder Present

This is generally for PDQ Machines and EPOS Systems. The Merchant ID will either sit inside of the PDQ machine, or inside of a gateway for an EPOS system. For example, a Merlin EPOS system will work with a Verifone gateway, hence the “CP” merchant ID will sit inside of the Verifone gateway.

Cardholder Not Present

A Card Not Present Merchant ID will sit inside of a virtual terminal or a gateway which allows a virtual terminal function. For example Opayo; Opayo is a gateway that also has a virtual terminal. This means on their back-end, you can take payments over the phone, hence, you would require a “CNP” Mid to process these transactions.

Ecommerce

An E-commerce merchant ID is required to take payments online. This MID will always sit within a gateway function. For example, if you wish to take payments online through your website, you would require a gateway like Opayo and an ECOM merchant ID from an acquirer like Elavon.

Why would my business need

A MID on its own?

Most gateways are agnostic, this means that the merchant ID is interchangeable. So if you are using an Opayo gateway with a WorldPay Merchant ID for CNP and ECOM transactions, you can swap the WorldPay merchant ID with another acquirer like Elavon.

This allows you to negotiate rates with other providers without having any disruption to your website or virtual terminal tokens. This is done through a process called a MID SWAP.