Developer's Guide

Submitting Credit Card Transactions
Submitting Partial Authorizations
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74 07 January 2014 Gateway Developer Guide and Reference
When To Use Partial Authorizations
Use partial authorizations to reduce the number of declines resulting from buyers spending
more than their balance on prepaid cards.
Say, for example, that you sell sportswear on your website. Joe purchases a pair of running
shoes in the amount of $100.00. At checkout, Joe uses a giftcard with a balance of $80.00 to
pay. You request partial authorization of $100.00. The transaction response returns the original
amount of $100.00 and the approved amount of $80.00.
You can take either of the following actions:
 Accept the $80.00 and ask the buyer to provide an alternate payment for the additional
$20.00.
 Reject the partial authorization and submit to the card issuer an authorization reversal
(Void) for $80.00.
Required Partial Authorization Parameters
To perform a partial authorization, pass the same parameters that you would for an
authorization (TRXTYPE=A, ACCT, AMT, and EXPDATE). In addition, pass the following
parameters.
Example Partial Authorization
The following is an example partial authorization.
1. You submit the initial authorization as a partial authorization.
TRXTYPE=A&TENDER=C&AMT=100.00&ACCT=4111111111111111&EXPDATE=0119
&PARTIALAUTH=Y&VERBOSITY=HIGH
2. The card issuer notes that the card has a remaining balance of $80.00.
3. The card issuer sends a partial authorization for $80.00.
RESULT=0&PNREF=VRNS1A3B33C9&RESPMSG=Partial
Parameter Description
PARTIALAUTH (Required) Set to Y to submit a partial authorization.
Limitations: 1 alphanumeric character.
VERBOSITY (Required) Set to HIGH to obtain information about a partial authorization in the
response.