Authorization request
An authorization request is the operation that allows to accept or refuse a transaction.
It puts the cardholder’s bank (SAE = Issuer Acceptance System) in contact with the merchant’s bank (SAA = Acquirer Acceptance System) and the payment provider: the payment gateway.
When an authorization request is accepted, the authorization limit of the card is lowered by the authorized amount.
- 7 days for Visa, Mastercard, Visa Electron, e-Carte Bleue and Vpay cards
- 30 days for Maestro cards
Deferred payment case
When the payment is deferred for more than 7 days, the payment gateway makes an information request in real time to check the card validity.
If the acquirer does not support information requests, the gateway proceeds to a EUR 1 authorization request.
The day before the capture date, the payment gateway makes an authorization request for the total amount.
If the request is accepted, the payment is captured at the bank on the scheduled date and the merchant can proceed with the delivery of the order.
Otherwise, the payment is refused.
Since the authorization request of the full amount is not made at the time of purchase, payments may be refused for insufficient balance.
To help merchants avoid losing these sales, the payment gateway offers an anticipated authorizations service.
This service allows the authorization to be triggered on D-6 before the desired capture date (or D-29 for Maestro cards).
In case of refusal by the issuing bank, a process automatically reissues authorization requests until up to 2 days prior the desired capture date at the bank.
This process only applies to certain refusal reasons (see table below).
The merchant may cancel the transaction or change its amount (only smaller amounts can be entered) and/or the capture date at any moment.
In case of refusal for a reason other than those listed in the table below, the transaction is considered definitively refused.
Below is a list of reasons that allow authorization retry:
| Authorization return code | Description |
|---|---|
| 00 | Approved or successfully processed transaction |
| 02 | Contact the card issuer |
| 08 | Confirm after identification |
| 17 | Canceled by the buyer |
| 19 | Retry later |
| 20 | Incorrect response (error on the domain server) |
| 24 | Unsupported file update |
| 25 | Unable to locate the registered elements in the file |
| 26 | Duplicate registration, the previous record has been replaced |
| 27 | File update edit error |
| 28 | Denied access to file |
| 29 | Unable to update |
| 30 | Format error |
| 38 | Expired card |
| 51 | Insufficient balance or exceeded credit limit |
| 55 | Incorrect secret code |
| 58 | Transaction not allowed for this cardholder |
| 60 | The acceptor of the card must contact the acquirer |
| 61 | Withdrawal limit exceeded |
| 68 | Response not received or received too late |
| 75 | Number of attempts for entering the secret code has been exceeded |
| 90 | Temporary shutdown |
| 91 | Unable to reach the card issuer |
| 94 | Duplicate transaction |
| 96 | System malfunction |
| 97 | Overall monitoring timeout |
| 98 | Server not available, new network route requested |
| 99 | Initiator domain incident |
Please contact your customer advisorSociété Générale if you wish to enable anticipated authorizations.