Staged Authorisation

The purpose of staged authorisation is to authenticate the consumer's card details, without taking (or reserving) any funds from their account. The funds can then be collected from the consumer at a later date.

No funds are reserved on the consumer's account, as it is not a preAuth.

 

You can then use the authenticated card details to process a transaction for the desired amount at a later date.

After authenticating the card:

  • You will have up to 30 days to process the transaction.

 

What you need:

  • API version 6.18 (or higher).

  • Set the delayedAuthorisation flag in the /transactions/preauths request to true.

You can find an example delayedAuthorisation flag in our Transaction API Reference here.

 

How it Works

When processing a staged authorisation request, you are authenticating the:

  • Consumer's card details

  • Amount you are intending to collect from the consumer

This process confirms to the issuer your consumer's card details are authentic and the intended collection amount.

 

To achieve this:

  • Set the delayedAuthorisation flag in the /transactions/preauths request to true.

  • Set an amount that is slightly higher than the amount you expect to collect from your consumer as part of this transaction.

    • This ensures you authenticate the consumer's card details and the intended collection amount, including a small buffer for any additional charges your consumer may incur.

      (For example, up to 15% more than the estimated amount).

  • Once you are ready to collect the final amount from your consumer:

    • Submit a /transactions/collections request to collect any amount up to the authenticated amount.

 

The advantage of authenticating a slightly higher amount up front, is that merchants can benefit from full liability shift on the final collected amount as long as it is within the authenticated limit.
Since funds are not reserved up front, consumers are more likely to be at ease when authenticating a higher amount.

 

You can find an example delayedAuthorisation flag in our Transaction API Reference here.

 

Varying Final Amount (Taxi / Hospitality)

There are instances where consumers make a booking for a taxi up to a month in advance and request an estimated fare. Often in this scenario, consumers prefer that funds are not blocked in their account so far in advance.

To not ring-fence the estimated amount from the consumer's account, use staged authorisation to process a transaction for the desired amount at a later date.

 

The liability shift is ensured for the estimated amount.

 

Example Staged Authorisation Flow:

  1. Merchant makes a payment request for an estimated amount

  2. Consumer completes 3D Secure 2 authentication via a staged authorisation request

    1. The 3D Secure 2 authentication, provides Liability Shift to the merchant on the amount specified

  3. The 3D Secure 2 authentication details are returned in the receipt

  4. Merchant stores the receiptId of the staged authorisation

  5. When the consumer completes the taxi journey:

    1. Merchant can submit a collection request, including the relatedReceiptId of the authentication in the request body

      1. The relatedReceiptId is used to look up the authentication value and submit the payment