If you would prefer to save the guest's card details and take the money at a later date then you can now authorise the amount instead of taking the payment straight away!
To do this as a user on Trybe go into an order and press 'Pay £__' or go to payments and press '+Add payment' > Pay By Link > Authorisation
The customer will receive an email, with a link that will direct them to a safe page where they'll be able to input their card details, allowing you to charge the card that has been authorised at a later date. The status of the order will be 'Submitted' and the amount will be in a 'Total authorised' section on the order details.
On the Orders tab the order will also be shown as having '£___ outstanding' as the money has not yet been paid only authorised.
Card authorisation on the shop front
If you want all offerings on your shop to be card authorised instead of directly paid immediately you can ask us to turn on the card authorisation feature for you.
This will mean that when any customer makes a booking on your shop they will not be charged until a later date when you go into the system and charge the card.
Please note: If Card auth is enabled on your shop front it will be excluded from the following type of orders:
Membership orders (order containing the joining fee/ pro rata payment)
Any orders where Vouchers are purchased. This also includes orders where there are other offerings and a voucher i.e. 2 appointments and a voucher.
For Membership orders and Voucher orders a card auth will not be taken and a payment will be taken instead. For any other orders i.e. appointments/ packages/ sessions etc. a card auth will be taken as expected.
As a customer on the shop front when you have added the items to your basket and go to Checkout, you will see that the button states 'Proceed to card details'. When you press this you will then be taken to the page where you enter in your card details and 'Save card'. This is card authorisation only and so it is only saving the card details that will then be charged later.
Customers will then be sent an email and this will be a confirmation of the order and include a phrase stating 'A payment of £__ has been authorised to be taken at a later date'. (See Image 3)
When can I charge the card?
When the card is authorised, the status of the card is 'Ready'. This means the card details have been stored in Trybe and can be charged at any time as long as the card is active.
Stripe do also have an agreement with the banks so that if the bank supports it, when a new card is issued Stripe will update the saved card with the new details. This allows you to then charge the new card.
Charging the authorised card
To charge a card that has been authorised on the shop front or on Trybe system, you will need to head to Trybe > Orders.
Here you will be able to see all of the orders in your system. Orders that have been card authorised will still state '£__ outstanding' in red under the order as the details have only been saved not yet charged.
Press into the order you want to now charge, you will see in the order details there is a section with 'Total authorised' with the amount.
Select the 'Payments' tab. The card that has been authorised for this order will be listed and it will have the status 'Ready'. This shows you that this card has been authorised as it is 'Ready' to be charged.
To cancel the card authorisation select the three dots > Cancel. This will remove this card from the order.
To charge the card select the three dots > Charge. A warning will then appear saying 'Are you sure you want to charge this payment for £__?', select 'Yes, charge'.
This will then charge the card and the 'Ready' status will change to 'Paid', the 'Total authorised' will move into 'Total paid' and the order will no longer have an 'outstanding' payment.
To then send the customer an email that let's them know the card has now been charged go to Orders > select the order> Messages tab > select 'Send confirmation email'. (See Image 3) The email will show their order and state 'You have nothing left to pay for this booking.'
To refund this payment select the three dots > Refund> enter the amount you want to refund > Refund.
Reasons why a Card Authorisation might fail?
There is a chance this can happen but this will be infrequent. Here are the reasons why a card authorization can fail, or succeed then fail after initially being successful.
1. Fraud Prevention: After an initial successful authorization, the card issuer's (bank) fraud detection system might flag the transaction as potentially fraudulent. This could happen if the transaction appears unusual or deviates from the cardholder's typical spending patterns. In such cases, the card issuer (bank) might decline the transaction to protect the cardholder from potential unauthorized use.
2. Expiration: If the card's expiration date falls between the time of authorization and settlement, the card authorization may fail. Even though the card was valid at the time of authorization, it's no longer valid at the time of authorization.
3. Account Closure: If the cardholder closes their account or the card is reported lost or stolen after the initial authorization, the authorization may fail.
4. Merchant (Bank) Error: There could be errors on the merchant's (bank's) end during the authorization process that lead to the authorization failing. This could include technical glitches, data entry errors, or issues with their payment processing system.
5. Network Issues: Technical issues within the card network could cause a successful authorization to fail.
6. Cardholder Dispute: If the cardholder (customer) disputes the card authorization, the card issuer (bank) can cancel the card authorization, which will result in the card authorization failing.
Card authorisation FAQs
Does card authorisation work for both credit and debit cards?
Credit and Debit cards are both accepted.
Does an order need to have an outstanding amount to be able to take a card authorisation payment?
Yes, Card authorisation is essentially another way of taking payment for the Order so will need to have an outstanding balance. You'll only ever be able to secure a card for the amount of the Order (no more/no less).
What is the excess fee for card authorisation payments?
Card authentications are charged at 10p per card authorisation.
Once a card has been authorised for a certain amount, can we opt to only take payment for a fraction of the total amount authorised?
No, you can only charge the customer for the full amount the card was authorised for.
