Transaction Center & VPOS Support

Expired Authorizations

Expired Authorizations

An authorization will remain on a credit card for a period of 3-21 days, depending on the card issuing bank. After the authorization expires, the amount of the authorization is returned to the available balance of the credit card, and the customer is free to use that available balance on a new purchase. It is therefore possible that if you wait too long to settle an authorized charge that the available balance will be insufficient to cover the amount and the settlement will fail. Sometimes a single failed transaction can result in an entire batch failing. It is for this reason that authorizations older than 21 days cannot be settled via the transaction center and must be re-authorized.

How to Re-Authorize an Expired Authorization

If you attempt to settle an authorization older than 21 days, an alert box will show in the transaction center stating:

This transaction must be reauthorized.
It was authorized more then 3 weeks ago and can no longer be settled.
Click on the magnifying glass icon to the left of this row to bring up the transactions details.
You will be able to rerun this card from there.
You must settle transactions within 21 days of them being authorized.

You will need to re-authorize any authorizations older than 21 days.

To re-authorize an expired authorization:

  1. Inside your transaction center, navigate to Virtual Terminal Search Transactions
  2. Enter any search criteria you wish to find the transaction (or no information, if you wish) and click Begin Search
  3. A list of transactions matching your search criteria will be displayed. Click on the spyglass icon next to the transaction you wish to re-authorize.
  4. You will be brought to the transaction details screen. Scroll to the bottom of this screen, and you will see "Additional Authorization: Charge this Card Again"
  5. Enter a new order ID for the charge in the Order ID field and the amount to be charged in the Amount field

    NOTE: For the Order ID, we recommend that you use the original order ID with a character (such as a 1 or an A) at the end. This way, it is easy to recognize the charge as a re-authorization.

  6. If you'd like the transaction to be settled automatically, select Authorize and Settle in the Transaction Type pull down. If you would like to settle the transaction manually, select Authorize Only.
  7. Click the Submit button.
  8. The transaction details screen will refresh, and you will be given an authorization response letting you know whether the re-authorization was successful.

    If the re-authorization is declined; you will need to contact your customer to obtain new payment information, as the card no longer has enough available balance to cover the purchase.

  9. Again scroll to the bottom of the transaction details screen. You will see an option to void the transaction. Click on the check box next to Void Transaction and click the Submit button.

    NOTE: You are still on the transaction details screen for the original authorization, so you are voiding the original/expired authorization, not the new/re-authorized transaction

Reauthorize an Expired Transaction

Article written by Leanne E.