Sixteen words, used precisely

All terms

In the order they usually come up in a first conversation.

Closed-loop payment

A payment system where funds can only be spent within a defined ecosystem — one merchant, a group of related merchants, or a specific programme. Because the transaction never leaves that ecosystem, no card scheme sits in the middle of it.

Open-loop vs closed-loop

Open-loop payments (Visa, Mastercard) work across millions of merchants worldwide and carry interchange. Closed-loop payments work only inside a defined ecosystem and do not. The two are complementary: a closed-loop programme is a parallel product line, not a replacement for a card business.

Wallet card

A digital pass stored in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet that represents value (a balance, a prepaid amount) or access rights (tickets, membership). It is added from a QR code in about ten seconds and needs no app installed.

Prepaid balance

Money loaded onto a customer account in advance, to be spent within a specific merchant or ecosystem. In 7Konto the same balance is spendable at a POS terminal and in an online checkout.

Gift card

A stored-value payment card, usually for use at a specific merchant or group of merchants. Issued to Apple or Google Wallet, sold online or in store, and redeemable across every location in the network.

Digital coupon

A redeemable offer stored digitally — in email, SMS or a wallet — used for promotions, cross-marketing between chains, event tickets or targeted discounts. Trackable per issue and redemption, and not reproducible the way a printed voucher is.

Commercial account

A business-controlled prepaid or spending account, distributed to the employees or customers of the account owner, usually with spending limits. It is what makes a fuel card, a meal allowance or a benefits budget work.

B2B2E

Business-to-Business-to-Employee: a distribution model where a platform serves a business, and that business in turn serves its own employees or end users through prepaid accounts. Three parties, one platform — the pattern behind fuel cards, corporate meals and employee benefits.

White-label payment

A payment platform a bank, PSP or business offers under its own brand, using another company's underlying technology. The end user sees the partner's name; the partner does not build a ledger.

POS terminal

A Point of Sale hardware device used by merchants to process customer payments, typically issued by an acquiring bank. 7Konto runs on the terminals already deployed — PAX, Verifone, Ingenico and others — rather than on dedicated hardware.

Stored value

Money or credit held on a card, account or carrier rather than in a bank account, available for spending within a defined ecosystem. The general concept that prepaid balances and gift cards are both instances of.

Interchange fee

A fee paid by the merchant's bank to the customer's bank on every card transaction, set by Visa and Mastercard. It applies to open-loop card payments and not to closed-loop ones, which is where the economics of a closed-loop programme come from.

PassKit / Wallet pass

Apple's framework for creating digital passes in Apple Wallet — loyalty cards, gift cards, tickets, boarding passes — with a Google equivalent for Google Wallet. A pass can carry a balance, a barcode and push notifications, but on its own it is not a payment system.

Checkout widget

A ready-to-embed JavaScript component that adds "Pay with 7Konto" to a merchant's online checkout, with four one-click authentication methods: the Wallet card itself, a phone number, an email code or a corporate ID.

PSP checkout embedding

An integration where 7Konto is added as a native payment method inside a payment service provider's existing checkout, so every merchant on that gateway sees "Pay with 7Konto" automatically, with no code changes on the merchant side. One integration, the whole portfolio.

Smart Account Detection

Automatic routing at checkout that identifies whether the paying customer holds a personal (B2C) balance or a corporate (B2B/B2E) account, and applies the correct rules, limits and merchant restrictions to that payment.