When a purchase is made, the honor card user agrees to pay the card issuer. The cardholder indicates their consent to pay, by signing Business Line of Credit a receipt with a legend of the card details and indicating the amount to be paid or by entering a Personal identification number (PIN). Also, abounding merchants now accept verbal authorizations via telephone and electronic authorization using the Internet, known as a Card not present (CNP) transaction.

A charge-off is considered to be "written off as uncollectable." To banks, beastly debts and even fraud are simply allotment of the cost of doing business.