While prepaid and debit cards are used for instant pull payments, what happens if they do not have enough funds to cover the full transaction amount? TabaPay’s Partial Authorization Service provides an alternative to declining a transaction when the card’s available balance is not sufficient to approve a transaction in full. Participating issuers return an response with an approval for a portion of the original amount requested, enabling the remainder of the transaction amount to be paid by other means using split-tender functionality.

You can increase sales and decrease declines by enabling customers to use all available prepaid or debit card funds, supplementing with an alternate payment method for a seamless purchase experience, ensuring satisfaction even with an uncertain remaining balance.

Use Cases

• Accept partial auth from Visa/MC cards: Process the available balance and then charge the remaining transaction amount to a secondary card during an online payment.
• Facilitate partial bill payments by card: Avoid declined bill payments by accepting partial payments to cut down utility bills or vender invoices when the customer attempts to pay the full amount.
• Facilitate an Account Funding Transaction: Funds are debited from an account holder to load onto another financial account.

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Opt-In Service

TabaPay Partial Authorization Service is an opt-in service for TabaPay Clients. Two things are required for transactions to be enabled for Partial Authorization:

1. Set-up: ON/OFF at the TabaPay Merchant ID (MID) level
2. Run-time configuration Indicate explicitly within the Create Transaction API to enable partial authorization.

Partial Authorization Payout Example

Within the money movement space, when it comes to instant payments, prepaid and debit cards are popular payment methods. When there is not enough funds to cover the full transaction amount, merchants can use TabaPay's Partial Authorization Service to process the available balance and enable the remainder of the transaction amount to be paid by an additional payment method.

1. Sender cues a payout of $100.
2. Sender adds a message to the payout.
3. Sender confirms their $100 Visa card push payment with a to a beneficiary.
4. You display an partial authorization confirmation option for the sender.
5. Sender confirms the payout, and confirmation message is displayed.

Partial Authorization Payment Flow

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Supported Card Brands

Visa and MasterCard are both supported for Partial Auth. However, partial approvals will be dependent on the card issuer.

Here is a scenario to help follow the part auth flow.

• John wants to load $100 dollars into his favorite app. John has $75 as his available balance.

With Partial Authorization

• With partial authorization, John's transaction is approved by the issuer for only the available balance of $75.

Without Partial Authorization

• John's authorization is decline by the issuer due to insufficient funds.

1. TabaPay client's Customer presents a card to be used for the "pull" transaction. Initiates a transaction of $100.
2. TabaPay client sends out the Create Transaction Request which includes the Partial Authorization indicator.
3. TabaPay sends the transaction to card network with the partial authentication indicator turned ON for the transaction.
4. Card network conducts transaction verification and forwards the transaction to the issuer.
5. Issuer evaluates the transaction and approves the available balance of the cardholder. When the card’s balance is less than the purchase amount, issuer sends back an authorization response with a unique response code and the available balance as a partial amount approved to the card network.
6. Card network informs TabaPay of the partially approved amount
7. TabaPay shares the results of the partial approval to the TabaPay client
8. TabaPay client identifies the unique response code, subtracts the partially approved amount from the total transaction amount (and optionally requests another form of payment, using split-tender functionality. TabaPay Client's Customer pays the remaining amount of purchase with another form of payment, ...upto TabaPay Client's policies and capabilities)

Note: This ensures TabaPay Client's Customer is satisfied with a seamless process. If the customer does not wish to complete the sale, the merchant should initiate an authorization reversal.

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Accepting Partial Auths from Your Customers

• Partial authorization uses Create Transaction the same way as regular transactions. Upon receipt of a partial approval, present your customers with an option to pay for the balance with another form of payment.
• Ensure customer-facing pages clearly communicate why there is an outstanding balance and what amount will be charged to the additional form of payment.
• Clearing transactions will only be for the amount partially approved—this is the maximum amount of issuer liability, and there is no 15% tolerance allowed on partial authorizations.

Post Transaction Choices

• TabaPay Clients can identify the unique network response code, subtracts the partially approved amount from the total transaction amount, and requests another form of payment, using split-tender functionality.
• Customer pays the remaining amount of purchase with another form of payment, depending upon
  the TabaPay Client's policies and user experience/capabilities.
• TabaPay Client completes the sale and prints a receipt showing each payment amount.

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Reversal Request

If the customer does not wish to complete the sale, TabaPay Client should initiate an authorization reversal.

Best Practices

• Alternate Payment Methods for Remainder: Partial authorization works the same way as face-to-face transactions: Upon receipt of a partial approval, present the customer with an option to pay for the balance with another form of payment.
• Customer Education: Ensure customer-facing pages clearly communicate why there is an outstanding balance and what amount will be charged to the additional form of payment.

How Partial Auth Works

The request and response field descriptions can be found at Create Transaction.

Create Transaction Request

To indicate a partial authorization transaction,partial: true is required within the pullOptions object.

{
    "accounts": {
        "sourceAccount": {
            "card": {
                "accountNumber": "4111111111111111",
                "expirationDate": "202712",
                "securityCode": "245"
            },
            "owner": {
                "name": {
                    "first": "Payer",
                    "last": "Name"
                }
            }
        },
        "destinationAccountID": "NYMznh2UjfZBijgJs7WCA8"
    },
    "pullOptions": {
        "partial": true
    },
    "referenceID": "1kdev0924",
    "type": "pull",
    "amount": "100.00"
}

Response

To identify a partial authorization response, notice the partialAmount field, and the status field with PARTIAL_COMPLETED.

{
    "SC": 200,
    "EC": "0",
    "transactionID": "k5KnKwhgeita2lMToD9BQQ",
    "network": "Visa",
    "networkRC": "00",
    "networkID": "402104171109",
    "status": "PARTIAL_COMPLETED",
    "approvalCode": "210558",
    "partialAmount": "75.00",
    "card": {
        "last4": "1111",
        "expirationDate": "202712",
        "nameFI": "Whoop I.E. Institution"
    }
}

FAQs

How will merchants know how much remainder amount is unauthorized?

In the Create Transaction API Response, TabaPay will include a network response code of 10 to specify the authorization was only partially approved, and will contain both the partially approved amount as well as the originally requested full authorized amount.

For example, if the Create Transaction API was requested with Partial Authorization and if the original transaction amount was $100 and only $40 was partially authorized, then the Create Transaction API Response includes a network response code of 10, the original amount of $100, and the partially approved amount of $40. The difference between the two amounts will indicate the remaining unauthorized amount.

Are all card brands supported for partial authorization service?

Visa and MasterCard prepaid and debit cards are supported for partial authorization service. However, approvals will depend on the Issuer.

Do all issuers support partial authorization?

All Visa prepaid issuers and all acquirers are required to support partial authorization, and an increasing number of debit issuers support the service as well.

Let's say a TabaPay Client initiates a Visa transaction for $100 worth but only has a balance of $80 available. What happens when partial authorization is supported?

Create Transaction API Request: Includes transaction amount of $100 and the partial authorization indicator is ON.

Create Transaction API Response: Includes a network response code of 10, and both the partially authorized amount of $80 and the original transaction amount of $100 is returned back in the response.

When do TabaPay Clients reverse Partially Approved transactions?

Here are a few examples:

• When the customer does not offer additional funds to complete the transaction amount and the sale is canceled.
• The customer abandons a sale.
• The transaction is subsequently voided or cancelled for various reasons.

Can partial authorizations be used for both face-to-face and e-commerce transactions?

Yes. Partial authorization transactions can be used in both face-to-face and e-commerce environments. Additionally, all merchants, including mail order/telephone order and e-commerce merchants, must support sending a reversal of the partial authorization if the cardholder does not complete the purchase with another form of payment or transaction is subsequently voided or cancelled depending on their use case and context.

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