One-time two-step purchase

Overview

One-time two-step purchase is a payment type which uses two steps to make a one-time transfer of funds from customer to merchant. On the first step, merchant initiates an authorization hold—in other words, the purchase amount is deducted from the credit limit of customer's card account. On the second step, the purchase amount is 'captured', or, in other words, it is debited to the customer account based on the merchant request or after specific time lag.

This payment type allows merchant to “hold” the purchase amount and, thus, to ensure that specific amount will be charged, or captured, to customer account or, alternatively, to “release” the funds if the situation changes, for instance when the customer cancels hotel booking.

Payment model

You initiate the first step of a purchase by sending an auth request to the payment platform. Once the payment platform receives the request, it creates an auth operation which eventually results in holding funds on customer account.

The first step may require merchant to issue additional requests:

• If the payment requires customer to be authenticated by using the 3‑D Secure technology, the payment platform sends to the web service a callback that contains the data required to generate a request to the issuer, suspends the purchase processing, and waits until the web service submits a 3ds_result request with the authentication results.
• If the payment requires customer to be authenticated by the payment system on merchant's request, the payment platform receives a callback from the payment system and sends to the web service a callback with notification that authentication is required, and then suspends the payment processing and waits until the web service submits the following two merchant_auth requests: the start request—after customer confirms payment and finish—after customer enters validation code.
• If any payment stakeholder requests additional information (For example, the payment system may request cardholder address which was missing from the initial request.), the payment platform sends to the web service a callback that lists the requested parameters, suspends the purchase processing, and waits until the web service submits a clarification request with the requested information.

You can change the amount you authorised on this step either before or during the second step. To increase the authorised amount, submit an incremental request; to decrease the authorised amount, submit a cancel request.

The second step may be initiated by request from merchant's web service or the payment platform may automatically perform the step after specific time elapses.

The merchant initiates the second step by sending one of the following requests to the payment platform:

• capture—this request processing results in a capture operation and the customer account is debited for the held amount.
• cancel—this request processing results in a cancel operation and release of the funds held on the customer account.

In your capture request, you can specify a to-be-debited amount which is different from the initially authorised amount.

For more information on how to initiate the second step, refer to your account manager.

If the payment method supports refunds, after completing a one-time two-step purchase you can return your customers their money, if needed. You initiate a refund by sending a refund request to the payment platform. Refund is performed by using one of the following operations:

• reversal—this operation is used when refund is performed on the same business day as the initial purchase.
• refund—this operation is used when refund is performed after the business day of the initial purchase is closed.

Figure: State diagram for one-time two-step purchase

Payment statuses

The following table describes the statuses of any one-time two-step purchase.

The auth operation statuses

The following table describes the statuses of the auth operation.

Statuses of the incremental operation

The following table describes the statuses of the incremental operation.

Statuses of the capture and cancel operations

The following table describes the statuses of any capture or cancel operation.

Statuses of the reversal and refund operations

The reversal and refund operation statuses coincide with the capture and cancel operation ones.

Related links

• Interaction concepts—the general information about integration with the payment platform by using Gate.
• Two-step purchase—the detailed description of two-step purchases with payment cards.
• Callbacks—the section about callbacks usage.
• Information of operations performing—the section with the information about error codes in the payment platform.