The Merchant Descriptor is what shows on a cardholder statement when charged by a business.
ProPay has some configurable control on what is sent, but what is displayed varies somewhat by brand and issuing bank.
For Credit Cards
The account holder should see something like this:
[Registered Payment Facilitator Prefix]* [Affiliate prefix] [The Merchant DBA business name or Merchant First and Last Name] [Phone/Address info]
Generally, the display is limited to 25 characters or less from all data elements.
For American Express, cardholders may temporarily see 'ProPay' prior to the transaction settling, as the transactions are aggregated, and all submitted on ProPay's AMEX account, and the detailed merchant information comes through on the completed transaction.
Partners are also allowed to pass the element 'TransactionMerchantDescriptor' in their processing requests, which will override the standard configuration and set the descriptor for individual transactions.
For eCheck/ACH Payments
The account holder should see a description like this:
[Registered Payment Facilitator Prefix] [The Merchant DBA business name or First/Last Name]
Partners are also allowed to pass the element 'TransactionMerchantDescriptor' in their processing requests, which will override the standard configuration and set the descriptor for individual transactions.
Notes
Registered Payment Facilitator Prefix - This is only configured/displayed if the submitter is a registered payment facilitator with the card brands.
Affiliate prefix - This is only configured/displayed at the request of an affiliate who wants the cardholder to recognize the charge as from a more recognizable entity (ie when the actual merchant is an independent sales representative of an organization)
If neither the Payment Facilitator or Affiliate prefix are supplied, and the merchant does not have their own MID, the default prefix is PP* for ProPay.
DBA/FirstName LastName - If supplied at signup, the merchant's DoingBusinessAs value is included. Otherwise the merchant's First and Last Names are displayed.
Phone/Address Info - This is generally the phone # and City,State values of the merchant, as supplied at signup.
Examples:
Registered PayFac: GIV*Superman's5K Tempe, AZ 800-800-8000
Affiliate Prefix: GG*Superman's5K Tempe, AZ 800-800-8000
No prefix: PP*Superman's5k Tempe, AZ 800-800-8000
or Superman's5k Tempe, AZ 800-800-8000