We Need to Talk About Payments: 5 Concepts Even Smart Teams Get Wrong

In a recent training session, a senior commercial lead explained that their “card acquirer handled all the chargebacks.”

It wasn’t the first time we’d heard something like that - and it won’t be the last.

The truth is, even smart, capable, experienced teams get the basics of payments wrong. And we don’t blame them. Payments are complex and full of jargon. The tech moves fast, and even the workflow diagrams can be confusing.

But when these misconceptions go unchecked, they don’t just slow you down. They cost you. In time. In trust. In talent. In growth.

So, we asked our consultancy and recruitment teams to share the most common misunderstandings they hear from professionals across the industry - and what each one tells us about the need for better foundational knowledge in payments.

Let’s dig into five of them.

5 Payments Misconceptions That Cost Your Business

1. “The bank settles the funds directly to us, right?”

Spoiler: not always. And almost never alone.

We’ve seen sales teams pitch a new product assuming the bank handles the full flow of funds. In reality, settlement flows can involve multiple parties - processors, acquirers, schemes, pay-ins, pay-outs - and vary significantly depending on geography, licence type, and infrastructure.

Why it matters: If your team doesn’t understand who settles the money and how long it takes, you’re at risk of poor reconciliation, broken promises to clients, and unhappy CFOs. It can also cause major issues during expansion, where local clearing systems and timelines differ.

“We’ve had clients go live in new markets assuming they’ll get the money in T+1. They didn’t factor in local settlement delays or how FX conversion changes the picture entirely.”

2. “Chargebacks are our acquirer’s problem.”

Not quite. While acquirers facilitate the chargeback process, the risk sits with the merchant - and often the provider they work with. Failing to understand this is common, especially in teams where fraud, operations, and finance don’t communicate regularly.

Why it matters: Poor chargeback management affects profitability and can even result in scheme penalties or frozen funds. Businesses that don’t proactively monitor or manage chargebacks are putting their revenue and reputation on the line.

“One merchant told us they had ‘no chargebacks’ - then realised they just weren’t tracking them properly. The losses had been written off elsewhere in the system.”

3. “We’re not responsible for fraud. That’s on the issuer.”

This one’s especially common among startups or teams with limited experience handling card schemes. The issuer may carry liability - depending on the type of fraud and transaction - but merchants and PSPs are far from off the hook.

Why it matters: Misunderstanding fraud liability can lead to gaps in your risk strategy, underinvestment in monitoring, and incorrect assumptions in contracts and SLAs. Worse still, it can leave your business exposed in the event of a breach.

“Teams often think 3DS shifts all the liability. It doesn’t. And when you’re scaling across regions, the fraud patterns - and the rules - change too.”

4. “We only need to be PCI compliant if we store card details.”

Wrong again. PCI DSS applies to anyone who handles card data, even if you’re not storing it. That includes teams building checkout flows, using third-party tools, or even just passing through sensitive data.

Why it matters: Assuming you’re out of scope can lead to costly fines, reputational damage, or integration delays if regulators or partners intervene. It also causes headaches when clients ask for your security credentials and you don’t have a solid answer.

“We once worked with a payments startup whose developer used a test tool that logged card data. They had no idea they’d breached PCI scope - until a partner flagged it.”

5. “Everyone knows what ‘interchange’ means.”

You’d be surprised.

Interchange fees are among the most misunderstood - and misused - concepts in payments. Teams throw the term around without always knowing who receives them, who sets them, and how they affect pricing structures.

Why it matters: Misunderstanding interchange can lead to pricing errors, margin miscalculations, or badly designed go-to-market strategies. For product managers and sales teams, it creates confusion when trying to explain costs to clients.

“We’ve run training sessions where the term ‘interchange’ came up in the first slide - and half the room nodded along. By slide three, they realised they’d been using it incorrectly for months.”

Why These Payments Misconceptions Persist

The issue isn’t intelligence or competence. It’s exposure.

Many professionals in payments learn on the job. They pick up what they can from colleagues, clients, and whatever documentation is to hand. But that means learning can be informal, fragmented, and full of gaps.

And these gaps don’t just affect one person - they ripple outwards.

Teams struggle to get on the same page. Product launches get delayed. Compliance risks get missed. Clients get frustrated. And hiring becomes harder when the foundational knowledge isn’t there to build on.

The case for fixing the fundamentals

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At PaymentGenes Academy, we’ve designed our foundation training to fill these exact gaps. It’s not a crash course or a technical deep dive. It’s a business-critical primer for anyone working in payments, fintech, or financial services - from commercial to compliance, product to partnerships.

Because we believe when people understand how payments actually work, everything works better.

Fewer misunderstandings. Smarter decisions. Stronger outcomes.

Learn more about our payments foundation course here.