Partial Authorizations

Partial Authorization/Approval

Partial Authorization Mandate

A Partial Authorization occurs when an authorization is attempted for the full amount of the transaction and there are not enough funds available to cover the full amount, so an authorization for the amount available in the account is returned. This allows the cardholder to use the card presented for the amount available and for the merchant to obtain an additional form of payment for the difference. For Prepaid Gift Cards, the issuers will also return a card balance which will be printed on the receipt.

This feature is controlled by the Card Brands, and the Host has passed it to us. Card Brands such as Mastercard, Visa, etc. require this feature to be enabled for ALL cards. Partial Approval is still available for Discover. This is not a feature we can disable. If there are applications without this feature or that allow you to disable this feature it means they have not yet updated to the latest requirements set by the card brands. 

There is a new function available for Android and PIN pad applications. A Partial Approval Prompt can be enabled on the Misc tab.  When the prompt is enabled the terminal will ask if the customer wants to accept a partial amount.  If they accept it will prompt for an additional payment.  If it is rejected the transaction is declined.

Public References: 

Tsys Requirements: https://www.tsys.com/solutions/products-services/merchant/merchant-support/merchant-basics/partial-authorization/
Visa: https://usa.visa.com/dam/VCOM/global/support-legal/documents/visa-partial-authorization-service.pdf
Mastercard: https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/about-mastercard/what-we-do/rules.html

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