Email received from authorize.net updates MasterCard partial authorization requirement. “In late March, we sent an e-mail regarding MasterCard and Discover’s modifications to the rules concerning the processing of debit, pre-paid and gift cards for merchants located in the United States.

Recently MasterCard and Discover relaxed the requirements for e-commerce merchants so that support for partial authorizations and balance responses are no longer required, but recommended best practices. All retail and mobile merchants, however, must still support the requirements.

Additionally, all merchants are still required to support authorization reversals for any non-settled authorizations. The deadline for all Authorize.Net merchants to support the requirements is still June 30, 2011.

IMPORTANT: Although no longer a requirement for e-commerce merchants, Authorize.Net intends to support partial authorizations and balance responses for all merchants. We highly recommend that your merchants provide support for these features as they can help decrease declined transactions and potentially increase sales.

You can review the timeline of when we expect support for each processor in our Partial Authorization FAQs at < http://www.authorize.net/support/pafaqs#when>http://www.authorize.net/support/pafaqs#when.

We have also updated our FAQs to reflect the latest changes. If your merchants have questions, please refer them to the FAQs at http://www.authorize.net/support/pafaqs/ for additional information, including integration updates, value-adding services and more.”

Calls have been coming in about new MasterCard and Discover processing requirements. Some outlandish, some dead on.

MasterCard and Discover are modifying their rules concerning the processing of debit, prepaid and gift cards. MasterCard’s rule changes go into effect May 1, 2010, and Discover’s rule changes go into effect April 16, 2010. However, MANY ECOMMERCE HOSTS, INCLUDING VOLUSION, AND GATEWAYS, INCLUDING AUTHORIZE.NET,  have gotten an extension.

” MasterCard and Discover have worked together to extend these dates for all merchants using (INSERT VENDOR NAME HERE). Our merchants will now have until June 30, 2011, to implement support for the requirements within their systems.

What are the requirements?
MasterCard and Discover are requiring that all merchants support the following:

- Balance response transactions — For prepaid and gift cards, once the card has been used, the remaining account balance will be transmitted along with the authorization response. The remaining balance must be printed on the customer receipt, displayed on the Web page or point-of-sale terminal, or both.

- Partial authorization transactions — When a customer’s transaction amount exceeds the balance available on their debit, prepaid or gift card, instead of declining the transaction, a partial authorization for the amount available to the customer will be returned. This will allow the customer to pay for the remaining amount with another form of payment. This is called a split-tender transaction.

- Authorization reversals — An authorization reversal is a real-time transaction initiated when the customer decides that they do not want to proceed with the transaction, or if the merchant cannot complete the transaction for any reason. Authorization reversals free up the customer’s available balance on their debit, prepaid or gift card.

Ecommerce companies and gateways are dependent upon processors to exchange the data needed to support the above requirements. Shopping carts need to be able to accept and interact with updated gateway parameters. Gateways need to interact with various processors,  passing data to the gateway, receiving a response, and passing that back through to the shopping cart/ consumer. This is a huge undertaking to ensure all the data passes back and forth correctly.

Excerpt of email received today:

What steps is Authorize.Net taking to support these requirements?
Authorize.Net will be updating our systems over the coming months to support the requirements, but will be dependent on each processor’s readiness. For a table of when we anticipate we will support the requirements with each processor, please visit http://www.authorize.net/support/pafaqs/#when.

What do I need to do to support the requirements?
The steps that you will need to take to support the requirements depend on how you connect to the payment gateway. For example, if you connect using a shopping cart, point-of-sale device, or other solution, you will need to contact your solution provider to confirm that they will be supporting the requirements. If you connect using a direct integration, you should contact your Web developer for assistance. Please direct your Web developer to http://www.authorize.net/support/pafaqs/#do for information on the changes they will need to make.

Do I have to support the requirements?
MasterCard and Discover are requiring all merchants to support the requirements with the exception of merchants that exclusively process transactions via batch uploads, mail order/telephone order (MOTO), or recurring payment transactions. Your Merchant Service Provider (MSP) is ultimately responsible for determining if the requirements apply to your business, so please contact them for assistance in determining if your company is exempt.

Once again, these requirements will not be enforced for Authorize.Net merchants until June 30, 2011. However, we wanted to bring them to your attention now so that you have plenty of time to plan for their implementation.

For more information on the requirements, including how they affect our value-adding services, please visit our FAQ page at http://www.authorize.net/support/pafaqs/.

Fire Damages Data Center for Authorize.Net

July 3, 2009 — Authorize.net, a payment gateway service provider for over 238,000 businesses was the victim of a major fire in the early morning hours Friday at its location in Seattle resulting in a major disruption for online retailers.

Approximately 11 a.m. central time, Authorize.net set up a twitter account to keep its customers and their customers up to date on the outage and attempt to provide some information about the expected return to service.
The company confirmed that the fire had not only damaged the primary data center, but that a secondary data center seemed to have been impacted during the outage and was causing additional problems in getting the gateway back up.

authorize.net twitter

Many online articles refer to authorize.net as a credit card processor. They are not. They provide a gateway service that enables merchants to accept online payments. However in 2007, they were acquired by Cybersource, an electronics payments company. So while Authorize.net is not a merchant processor, their parent company is.