DEFERRED Transactions

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Overview

You may not want to take funds from a card immediately. Using the transaction type of DEFERRED, you can place a ‘shadow’ transaction on the customer’s card. The funds are protected until you release them. This is useful when orders are made before stock is available, or to secure the funds in your customer’s account until you are ready to ship an order.

    Important: A DEFERRED transaction’s settlement is not guaranteed to take place within 4 days and you may be charged a higher fee by your acquirer for all DEFERRED transactions. Connect with your Merchant Bank for more information on Pre-Authorisations.

    Register a Deferred Transaction

    To register a DEFERRED transaction you must change your script to send a TxType of DEFERRED when you register the transaction.

      Manage Deferred Transactions

      DEFERRED transactions are not sent to the bank for completion the following morning. They are sent only when you RELEASE them by:

      The following rules apply:

      • You can only RELEASE once per transaction, and only for an amount up to the DEFERRED transaction amount.
      • DEFERRED transactions remain available for a single RELEASE for up to 30 days. After that time they are automatically ABORTed by the Opayo system.
      • If you are unable to fulfil the order, you can ABORT the DEFERRED transaction and the customer will not be charged.
      Note: Ideally you should RELEASE all DEFERRED transactions within 6 days. After 6 days, the transaction shadow may disappear from the cardholder’s account and the customer can spend the previously protected funds.

      When you regularly need longer than 6 days to fulfil orders, then consider using the AUTHENTICATE and AUTHORISE transaction type.

      Deferred PayPal Transactions

      A DEFERRED PayPal transaction does not place a transaction shadow on the customer’s account. The order is only registered with the PayPal account. A successful authorisation for DEFERRED PayPal transaction confirms the availability of funds at that time and does not place any funds on hold.

      Important: We recommend that you do not ship goods purchased using PayPal before obtaining a successful RELEASE. PayPal applies best efforts to capture funds when you RELEASE a DEFERRED PayPal transaction and there is no guarantee the funds will be available.