Tagged Pre-Authorization Completion Maximum Adjustment
Until September 30, 2014 the tolerance level for adjustments on a Pre-Authorization transaction was 15% for all card brands. The benefit to this practice is that the merchant is protected from authorization related disputes up to the settled amount (where the settled amount is within 15% of the authorized amount).
Best Practices should the final amount exceed the 15% threshold would be for the merchant to either:
- Complete another authorization for the amount that exceeds the 15% allowance or
- Void the original Pre-Authorization for the original amount (note that although First Data sends a real time request to reverse the transaction, it is at the cardholder’s bank discretion to reverse it or not in real time) and submit a new purchase transaction via Payeezy Gateway for the full amount.
This is still the recommended best practice however:
On September 30th ,2014 as requested, the maximum allowed variance for a Tagged Pre-Authorization Completion was increased to a maximum of 199% or twice the original transaction amount. Additionally, the display below the Completion amount text box has been updated to indicate the new maximum amount that would be accepted (as shown in the example below). The Completion amount will display the original transaction amount* and below it will be the maximum allowed adjustment. If the maximum is exceeded, an error message will be displayed as shown. The client can then re-enter the correct transaction amount or follow the best practices outlined above if the final amount will exceed the new variance percentage.
* Transactions that originated prior to September 26th will still have the 15% maximum variance rule applied to them. These should automatically age out of the system, by being completed or being voided. In these transactions the amount displayed in the Completion text box would be the 15% difference (i.e. a 32.42 original transaction would show a completion amount of 4.86) and the Maximum Amount USD would display the maximum (15%) that this transaction can be adjusted to (i.e. 37.28). The client can re-enter the original amount or an amount up to the maximum displayed. If a final amount greater than the 15% is required best practices should apply.
Disclaimer: The best practices presented in this article represent what we have observed across our portfolio of eCommerce merchants. First Data does not endorse any particular method of amount adjustment.