Partial Authorizations

What does it mean?

When your customer lacks sufficient funds or credit in their account to complete a purchase with your business, a partial authorization allows the authorization of payment for the amount available on that card and then prompts to collect the outstanding balance from an additional payment method. Partial authorization is sometimes also known as "partial approval."

How does it work?

When you take a payment from your customer, the authorization is sent to the card issuer. The customer's bank checks for potential fraud and that the cardholder has enough money in their account for the purchase. If the customer lacks funds to complete the purchase, the issuer returns a partial authorization response. Ask the customer for an additional form of payment to complete the purchase. 

For example, a customer's purchase totals $52. The debit card provided has $45 in available credit. The partial authorization will authorize the debit card for the $45 and then prompt for an additional payment for the remaining $7 to complete the transaction. Accept the partial authorization to continue with the sale and request an additional form of payment.

Can I choose to not accept partial authorizations?

You can make a decision about whether to accept a partial authorization on a transaction by transaction basis. Each time a partial authorization occurs, you have the option to continue the sale or to decline and reverse the funds back to the original card. 

Although accepting partial authorizations will reduce card declines and increase customer satisfaction, you may decide it is not right for your business. Call us to request that the feature is disabled for your account.