Auth / Capture - Online Credit Card Payments

ironclaw

Hi All,

I'm looking for anyone with experience in realizing auth and capture payments online. It can be done with Stripe but there is a maximum of 7 days which is an issue for us.

e.g. We take a deposit for a booking, but that booking may not be realized for 3 to 6 months. Hence we need the ability to capture a 'no show' amount on that day.

Are there any Irish suppliers offering this? And are there any additional requirements?

Thanks!

Cianos

Can you take a small initial charge and then enter the customer in to a future postponed payment? I know you can set whatever trial period you want for signing someone up to a subscription, not sure about once-off payments, but I'm sure you could also immediately cancel the subscription.

Websites4u

i would use only PayPal. You only pay when you make a sale. everyone knows paypal, so apparently it will increase your sales by 33%. you also, generally, dont need a lot of coding changes as opposed to using specific payment gateways such as realex or sage pay. If you have Shopify, Prestashop, osCommerce, it should be easy enough to hook in PayPal. Good luck!

ironclaw

Websites4u wrote: »

i would use only PayPal. You only pay when you make a sale. everyone knows paypal, so apparently it will increase your sales by 33%. you also, generally, dont need a lot of coding changes as opposed to using specific payment gateways such as realex or sage pay. If you have Shopify, Prestashop, osCommerce, it should be easy enough to hook in PayPal. Good luck!

Except PayPal has massive fees for the seller and brings a person off your website to complete your sale, increasing your steps which is bad UI/UX. Stripe keeps people on your site, is becoming far more widespread and the integration is a breeze.

To tentatively answer my own question, you can post-date a transaction with Stripe. I'll report back if we make progress.

Websites4u

hey @ironclaw , paypal charge 2.9% + 30 cent. higher volumes = more discount. with realex, you are paying set up fee, monthly fee, i think a fee to the merchant bank as well, all before you make a sale. yes paypal goes off website, but doesn't increase steps. on my site i have with stripe : add to cart -> checkout. with paypal i have buy with paypal -> paypal site. i prefer stripe as it is cheaper and yes integrates on the website but lots of people know paypal, so i don't want to remove as an option.

Have a similar question to the OPs.

I'm thinking of having a pre-order feature on my own website but your limited in terms of the days in advance you can offer the pre order. Shopify only offer 7 days which is what im considering using to build my site initially. Certain 3rd party (payment) companies offer longer times but it varies. My goods will have a lead time of 20 days from China so to drum up interest in products, i am considering adding this feature.

I realise you can only charge the card on the day of finalisation/shipment and authorisations fall off the system after a week or so.

What are others experience in this regard?

Websites4u

you can just put items up for sale, let people know its preorder and you can do it for as long as you like... dont specify a date, when you have the product available, remove the pre-order text.

ironclaw

Deleted User wrote: »

Have a similar question to the OPs.

I'm thinking of having a pre-order feature on my own website but your limited in terms of the days in advance you can offer the pre order. Shopify only offer 7 days which is what im considering using to build my site initially. Certain 3rd party (payment) companies offer longer times but it varies. My goods will have a lead time of 20 days from China so to drum up interest in products, i am considering adding this feature.

I realise you can only charge the card on the day of finalisation/shipment and authorisations fall off the system after a week or so.

What are others experience in this regard?

Hi tipp_Gunner,

I spoke with Stripe directly about this. You have two options:

- Auth/Capture: Basically, you authorise the card for the amount you require e.g. 100EUR. You can then charge the card up to a maximum of 7 days later for any amount up to this. So for example, you think the product will be 100EUR but you get huge interest and offer a discount to early pre-orders, so you only charge 80EUR. The draw back is, you have to do it within 7 days. PayPal offer 29 days but you must remember that the 'auth' may show up as a charge on your customers account and they will then be refunded the difference e.g. Withheld of 100EUR, then 80EUR and refunded 20 EUR, 100EUR release. This can annoy some people, rightly so. Also, in all instances, the card must be 'good' for the full amount, so if you have someone who has a low debit balance, the auth will fail and possibly loose you the sale.

- Alternatively, Stripe has a nice feature where you take the card details and they store them as a 'Customer Object' This is basically a virtual representation of the Users card which you can store and charge as you please. You do not have to charge the card in the first instance and the card details are safe with Stripe. The fall down however is that if someone made a pre-order today, and say you had a delay in your shipment and they arrived in December, the card could pass its expiry date and you can no longer process it. Alternatively, the card could have no funds when you go to charge it at a later date as you have no auth amount meaning payment is not guaranteed. Neither of these are a massive inconvenience to you as you just don't post the item to the customer if the card charge fails, assuming of course you are taking the stock to Ireland and then reposting it. The massive upshot of this method is you could take a pre-order now and charge it next year, there is no limit on time, you just don't have the same safe guard of the payment going through because of an expired card or insufficient funds.