Keeping a gateway when changing the acquiring relationship

Define what you mean by keeping the gateway

List the components you actually want to preserve: the buyer-facing payment interface, the merchant’s gateway account, the software integration and the connection to the company handling transactions. These are separate questions even when a single vendor currently supplies them. Keeping the visible interface does not establish that its account settings or processing connection can remain unchanged.

Use the contracts and current configuration to name each component. PCI’s glossary describes a payment processor as an entity handling card transactions on a merchant’s behalf and notes overlapping use of gateway and service-provider terminology. It defines an acquirer separately as a payment-brand-defined acquiring financial institution. Those definitions explain why a familiar label is insufficient; they do not determine whether your contracted gateway is portable.

Tie each dependency to a document and an owner

Identify the legal party on the gateway agreement and the party named as acquirer in the relevant account documents. Record whether the gateway service is separately contracted or appears only within a broader provider package. An invoice can help locate the agreement, but an invoice description alone does not establish your right to retain the service after the acquiring change.

Ask the integration owner to list where the current connection is selected and where account identifiers are configured. Record locations and responsible roles, not credential values. The useful outcome is a dependency map showing which store component points to which contracted service and which vendor must confirm a change. If a link in that map is unclear, label the exact link unresolved.

Ask about the proposed connection in precise terms

Give the gateway vendor the actual prospective provider and acquiring arrangement, the merchant entity and the integration you intend to keep. Ask which existing components may remain, which account or connection settings would change and what conditions apply. A general statement that a gateway supports multiple processors does not answer whether your specific account and proposed connection are supported.

Ask the prospective provider to confirm its side of the same arrangement, including the disclosed research-only catalog, website, countries and payment methods you intend to use. A technical compatibility reply from a software vendor does not decide whether the provider will accept that business. Likewise, account approval alone does not establish that a particular software version can connect.

Have the integration owner compare those written answers with the installed software and current configuration. Record any required change, its owner and the evidence needed to demonstrate that it works. This worksheet does not supply a compatibility list or assume that a gateway, credential, saved payment method or historical transaction can move. Each claimed reusable component needs its own supporting answer.

Turn confirmations into a bounded reuse decision

Classify each component as confirmed to remain, confirmed to change or unresolved. Include the source and date of each confirmation and any condition that limits it. If the gateway vendor and prospective provider name different connection arrangements, send the discrepancy back for clarification; do not combine two partial answers into a single approval.

The merchant can decide which interface features it wants to retain and whether the evidence is sufficient to commission a defined change. Keep old-order support, refunds and access to historical records as separate dependencies to confirm before retiring anything. A statement that the interface can remain does not settle those duties, cancellation terms or the date the new account may receive transactions.

For a Prism processing consultation, provide the public website and a summary of the gateway, acquiring change and unresolved connection question. Prism can help organize processing preparation and provider website questions. Describe the technical help needed so responsibilities, scope, fees and terms can be confirmed before work. The public form is an inquiry with email follow-up, not a processing application or a commitment to perform the migration.

Gateway and acquirer dependency map

Complete this from current agreements, the installed configuration and written vendor answers about the proposed arrangement. Mark each item confirmed to remain, confirmed to change or unresolved, with a dated reference. Reuse is a component-by-component conclusion; no single green row establishes readiness for the whole change.

Worksheet entries are not submitted by Prism’s worksheet and are not saved by the site. Use record types, availability, anonymized observations, or match/mismatch results. Do not enter government identifiers, customer names or addresses, customer messages, receipt-access links, card or bank details, passwords, or keys. Send sensitive documents only through the provider’s verified secure channel.

These are temporary notes. Leaving or reloading this page may clear them. Worksheet entries are not sent automatically. If you copy notes into the consultation message and submit the form, Prism receives them as part of your request.