Partial Authorizations Guidelines for Merchant Account Services

Each time the outstanding balance on, exclusively, a debit or prepaid payment card account, is not enough to cover the entire sale's amount, partial authorizations are there to make it possible for merchant account services users to complete the transaction by taking whatever balance is available on the debit or prepaid card and enable customers to pay the rest of the balance using an alternative form of payment, for example a check, cash, another card, etc. This type of payment is known as a "split tender" transaction.

With prepaid bank cards that also double as gift cards, the outstanding balance will be shown by default on the retailer's point-of-sale (POS) device and it may also be printed out on the transaction receipt.

How Merchant Account Services Partial Authorizations Are Processed

Listed below is a step-by-step description of the process of managing a partial authorization request:

1. The customer's debit or prepaid payment card's outstanding balance is inadequate to cover the sale's amount.
2. The retailer sends a merchant account services payment processing authorization request for the entire sale's amount (not including the tip, however), also including an indicator designating it as a Partial authorization.
3. As the inadequate balance is revealed, the card's issuer approves the partial authorization request and sends its response back to the retailer.
4. The retailer's POS device identifies the routed response code and subtracts the partially approved amount from the total sale's amount. If, though, the sale is done in a full-service environment, the POS machine prints out two individual receipts - one displaying the partially approved amount (again, not including a tip line!), and another one displaying the remaining balance due, as well as a tip line to indicate that the amount is still outstanding.
5. The customer now pays the remaining amount using another form of payment.
6. The transaction is finalized and a sales receipt is produced, indicating the two split tender amounts. If, though, as is what happens with a Balance Return authorization response, the outstanding account balance is also displayed. To protect sensitive consumer information, it can be formatted as shown below:
   • If the indicated outstanding account balance is below $250, the POS device shows the exact balance and also prints it on the transaction receipt (it should look like this: "Balance Remaining: ($23.45").
   • If the indicated outstanding account balance is below $250, though, the POS device displays a "Confirmed" message, rather than the due dollar amounts (so it should look like this: "Balance Remaining: Confirmed").

Protect Your Merchant Account Services Account from Fraud

While the retailer is waiting for the response to its transaction authorization request, it has more than enough time to examine closely the presented card. Any indication of altering with the bank cards' security features should be seen as a sign that the retailer has been given a card that is either invalid or counterfeit.

In case that the retailer does receive an approval response to its authorization request, but still suspects that fraud may be under way, it may need to make a Code 10 call for instructions on whether or not to complete the transaction.