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Authorization Hold (also Card Authorization or Pre-authorization) is the practice within the banking industry of authorizing electronic transactions processed with a debit card or credit card and holding this balance as unavailable either, until the merchant clears the transaction (settlement), or the hold "falls off" by issuer default settings.
In the case of debit cards, authorization holds can fall off the account (thus rendering the balance available again) as early as 1- 4 days after the transaction date depending on the bank's policy; in the case of credit cards, holds may last as long as 30 days depending on the issuing bank.
An authorization hold can be cancelled by the merchant if his acquirer supports a process known as authorization reversal. Upon receipt of a reversal request, the acquirer will send a reversal message to the cardholder’s issuing bank.
Full Authorization Reversal
Releases the full authorization amount the merchant has placed on a cardholder’s account.
Partial Authorization Reversal
If the final capture amount is less than the authorization amount, the merchant can partially reverse the authorization so the settlement amount matches the new authorization amount and so the unused card funds can be released.
Card Types Supported
- Maestro
- MasterCard
- VISA
- Visa Electron
- American Express
- Union Pay
A reversal is triggered by using the /payments/{trx_id}/cancel API or using the Cancel button in the WPC.
Response
After a successful reversal the response ‘00’ is given and the status is set to 99999.
You have the option to get the result of the reversal in the response. This is given in the JSON response body VOIDRESPONSEID element.
Status Codes
After a successful reversal the response ‘00’ is given and the status is set to 99999.
If the provider did not provide a response, the VOIDRESPONSEID will be empty or contain the value 98.
The other results are:
| Description | Void result |
|---|---|
| Reversal request submitted | 0, 8 or 11 |
| Reversal request declined or referred. | 5 or 55 |
How to enable this service (Boarding)
Please contact your Account Manager.
Additional Information
For an authorization to be reversible, the status of the transaction must be 600 or 800 (partial reversal: 600).
Whilst scheme regulations require that acquirers (and their providers, like us) support reversals, there are no rules towards issuers mandating them to process the reversal advice. Therefore there is no guarantee that the authorization hold will be released. Also, be aware that the issuer needs time to process the request. The funds may not be unblocked immediately, even if the request is sent real-time.
The authorization reversal can only be performed by the card issuer, and under no circ*mstances will Worldline be responsible for performing the authorization reversal.
Neither Worldline nor any of its affiliates will be liable to a merchant for any costs, losses and/or damages arising out of a card issuer not processing or delaying to process an authorization reversal request.
