Workspaces
Glossary

Card Present

Transactions where the physical card is read at POS (chip, contactless, or magstripe).

POS

Card-present (CP) transactions involve a physical card at the terminal—chip/PIN, contactless (NFC), or fallback magstripe. Fraud risk is lower than card-not-present because the card and, often, PIN or device authentication are present.

CP rails often have lower fraud and sometimes lower fees than e-commerce, but counterfeit or lost/stolen card risks remain. Adding wallet options like Apple Pay or Google Pay keeps PANs tokenized.

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Related terms

Keep learning with these nearby definitions.

Acquirer
Bank or payment institution that signs merchants and routes their card transactions into the card networks.
Apple Pay
Mobile wallet by Apple that tokenizes cards for contactless and in-app payments.
Card Fraud
Unauthorized card use or theft of credentials to initiate transactions.
Card Network
Payment network (e.g., Visa/Mastercard) that sets rules and routes card transactions between issuers and acquirers.
Card Present