Credit Cards

About

Credit cards are a form of card payment where the card issuer extends a line of credit to the cardholder which can be used to purchase goods or services. The main variations are:

• Charge card - a charge card works in the same way as a credit card but requires the balance to be paid in full each month
• Credit cards extend a continuing line of debt, subject to interest being charged
• Debit card which can be used like currency by the owner of the card and is linked directly to the cardholder’s bank account
• Prepaid cash card/gift card which can be loaded with a positive balance and used like currency until the balance is depleted (*not all cards are reloadable)

Payment Flow

1. The consumer selects a card on the payment page.
2. The merchant sends the request to Reach.
3. We direct the authorization request to the relevant acquiring channel.
4. The acquirer directs the authorization request to the card issuing bank.
5. The card issuing bank processes the transaction in real-time, returning an authorization or decline response.
6. The acquirer sends the authorization result to Reach.
7. Reach returns the request response result to the merchant.
8. If the request is authorized, you can choose to release the product or service to the consumer.

Properties

FAQ

• Debit cards physically look like credit cards. Funds are withdrawn directly from either the cardholder's bank account (often referred to as a check card). However, for merchants, many debit cards are processed exactly the same as a credit card.
• Debit cards often are co-branded, enabling consumers to use them globally. There are many other types of debit card, each accepted regionally or nationally. For example the following are national debit brands: Maestro, Visa Electron and Carte Bleue in France.
• A card authorization serves as confirmation that a customer has sufficient funds to purchase the goods or services they are requesting and that their card issuer agrees to honor the payment.
• When a consumer makes a transaction, any authorization given is held against the customer‘s credit limit.
• When an authorization hold expires, it can no longer be used to capture funds (settlement) and the merchant is required to reauthorize the transaction prior to delivery.
• As long as the authorization hold is still valid, a capture request can be made.
• When a capture request is executed, the authorization hold is converted to a settlement request and the amount in the settlement request is debited from the cardholders account.

Best Practices

• We require the billing address and card verification value (AVS and CVV)
  • Address Verification Service (AVS) verifies the credit card billing address of the customer who is paying with a credit card. You need to include an AVS request with the transaction authorization and you will receive a result code (separate from the authorization response code) that indicates whether the address given by the cardholder matches the address in the issuer‘s file. A partial or no-match response may indicate increased fraud risk. AVS services are currently available in the UK and the US.
  • Card Verification Value 2 (CVV2) is a three or four-digit code that is printed on the signature panel of all credit cards.
    • MOTO and Internet merchants use CVV2 to verify that the customer has a legitimate credit card available at the time of the order.
    • You can request the customer for the CVV2 code and send it to the issuer as part of the authorization request.
• If possible, take advantage of Reach's PCI offloading capabilities. We are PCI-DSS Level 1 Compliant. Offloading your PCI burden to Reach can be a great way to avoid your own costly, and time-consuming PCI compliance.
• Don't store any card or personal data if possible
• It's usually a bad idea to ship before capture is complete.

Technical Considerations

• The ability to handle notifications is key to successful credit card processing
• Credit cards are a very popular payment method around the world, but it's important that your technical integration reflects local buying habits.
• Supported cards include:
  • Visa | VISA | All markets
  • Diners | DINERS | All markets
  • American Express | AMEX | All markets
  • Japan Card | JCB | All markets
  • Mastercard | MC | All markets
  • Discover | DISC | All markets
  • Maestro | MAESTRO | All markets
  • Visa Electron | ELECTRON | All markets
  • Debit Card | DEBIT | MX
  • Elo | ELO | BR
  • Hipercard | HIPERCARD | BR
  • Aura | AURA | BR
  • China Union Pay | UNIONPAY | CN,HK,MO,SG,JP,KR
  • Dankort | DANKORT | DK
  • CMR Falabella | CMR | AR
  • Cordobesa | CORDOBESA | AR
  • Nativa | NATIVA | AR
  • Tarjeta Shopping | TARJETA | AR
  • Cencosud | CENCOSUD | AR
  • Cabal | CABAL | AR
  • Cordial | CORDIAL | AR
  • Argencard | ARGEN | AR
  • Naranja | NARANJA | AR
  • OCA | OCA | UY
  • Lider | LIDER | UY
  • RuPay | RUPAY | IN

Testing

• Testing card numbers and information are available from our technical team at [email protected]
• Our test tool is located at https://checkout.rch.how/

Related Information

Please see our most recent API guide.