Card-Present

Any transaction where the card is physically presented at the point of sale, chip read, contactless tap, or magnetic stripe. CP transactions carry lower interchange and lower chargeback exposure than CNP, and benefit from EMV liability shift when chip is read.

In practice.

Card-present transactions carry lower fraud risk because the chip is read physically, so pricing and chargeback exposure are both friendlier than online. For mixed businesses, keeping CP and CNP volume on correctly separated MIDs keeps the risk picture clean for the acquirer.

Related terms: Card-Not-Present · EMV · Chip and PIN