New Merchants

University units that wish to accept credit cards as a form of payment must first collaborate with the Financial Officer and IT leader for the administrative area to determine if applying for an account is appropriate. In some cases, a unit may have a merchant account, but may have a need to set up a unique Terminal Identification (TID) under that merchant account for a particular unit. If agreement is reached that a merchant account and/or terminal is appropriate, the unit must apply by completing a Credit Card Processing Merchant Request or Credit Card Processing Terminal Request. This application must be completed in full, with the required signatures obtained. The Financial Officer is responsible for forwarding the request to the Office of Finance for final approval and processing.

Units applying for a merchant account or terminal ID must have a clear business purpose for processing credit card transactions, and will need to identify annual expected dollar volume, transaction volume and expected means of receiving credit card information (in person, phone, fax, mail, web). Units are responsible for all setup, operations, and maintenance costs, including security and breach management. On the application form, the unit must indicate which credit card processing method will be used. Applications for merchant accounts may be denied if it is determined that another unit should be processing such payments, for example:

  • Only the Bursar and Outreach may process credit card transactions for fees on the student account
  • Conferences and other programs with an eternal audience must be arranged through Outreach, per policy AD03.

If an application for a new merchant account or terminal ID is approved, the Office of Finance will coordinate with the credit card process to establish a new merchant account (or terminal ID). The Office of Finance will notify the Financial Officer when the account is established.

If any changes are made in how credit card transactions are processed (i.e. move from POS terminals to AIS eCommerce Services), a revised Credit Card Processing Merchant Request or Credit Card Processing Terminal Request form must be submitted and approved.