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Payment Features
Payment Features
All VSP products offer the payment features described below at no additional cost to give you control and flexibility over your payment processing.
Real-time Payment
A real-time payment is a simple card payment and is used by our systems as the default option. There are two stages to every payment: authorisation and settlement.
Authorisation is obtained from the bank in real-time as soon as the card details have been submitted to Protx. This usually takes about 2-3 seconds. Once a transaction has been authorised, the customer's card is 'shadowed' so that for a certain period of time, those funds are reserved for that one transaction and cannot be spent elsewhere. It is important to note that this is not a guarantee against fraud.
Settlement: In order for the funds to get into your merchant bank account, Protx sends a batch settlement file to Lloyds TSB Cardnet on a daily basis. This includes all authorisation codes obtained over the last 24 hours. It usually takes the banks 3 to 4 days to pay this money into your account, depending on the agreement you have with your bank.
Deferred Payment
When a customer buys a product from your website, you may not have it in stock. Deferred payment allows you to accept the order, without taking any money from your customer's credit card until you are ready to ship the product.
You can also use deferred payment if you would like to see the fraud screening results of your transactions before you decide whether or not to accept them.
In a deferred transaction, our system obtains an authorisation at the time of the transaction, in exactly the same way as a real-time payment. A 'shadow' is left on your customer's card for a certain period of time to reserve funds for that particular transaction.
Unlike a real-time payment, a deferred transaction will not be sent for settlement automatically at the end of the day. In fact, we will not release the transaction for settlement until you tell us to do so. This gives you a period of time in which to review the order or receive more goods into stock. Once you are ready to ship your goods, you can then 'release' the transaction for settlement.
The authorisation 'shadow' will usually remain active for 10 days, but can be anything up to 30 days depending on the type of card used. We recommend that you release transactions within 10 days to guarantee settlement. If you want to delay the payment for more than 10 days, you should use the payment method Authenticate and Authorise.
Deferred payment requires you to settle for exactly the same amount as the card was authorised for, so if you sell goods of variable value, you should use the payment method Authenticate and Authorise.
Authenticate and Authorise
If you wish to delay payment for longer than 6 days or if you do not know the exact price at the time the order is placed, Authenticate and Authorise is the best option for you.
To use Authenticate and Authorise you will need 3D Secure set up on your account. If 3D Secure is unavailable (if you are a VSP Terminal user, or if you are processing an American Express, Diners or JCB card), the transaction details cannot be authenticated but will be registered and stored by Protx until authorisation is requested.
If 3D Secure is available for the transaction, when a customer goes to the payment pages to enter their card details, they will be re-directed to their issuing bank to enter their password so that the transaction can be authenticated under the 3D Secure scheme. At this point no funds have been taken from the customer’s card and the transaction details will be stored securely on our system. This is the Authenticate stage of the transaction process.
When you are ready to ship the goods, you would then need to send the transaction for authorisation through VSP Admin (or from your web server). This information will be fully 3D Secured using the information obtained during the Authenticate stage. The transaction will then be sent for settlement overnight as normal.
The Authentication or Registered details are valid for up to 90 days (except for with International Maestro cards where the authentication is only valid for 30 days), which is the amount of time you have to fulfil the order.
You can authorise for any amount up to 115% of the value of the Authentication, with no lower limit (or up to 100% of the transaction with International Maestro cards). This is useful if you do not know the exact value of the transaction at the time the order is placed. The card details will be stored securely by Protx so that you do not need to worry about storing cardholder data yourself.
This new payment method is provided by Protx free of charge. You will only be charged for each authorised transaction that is sent for settlement in the normal way.
For more detailed information on Authenticate and Authorise and to download our integration guidelines, please visit our support website
Repeat Payment
Repeat payments apply to merchants who occasionally repeat transactions, for example when a customer places another order, or decides to extend an existing order. If you wish to make repeat payments you can do so through the reporting screen in VSP Admin where you can make a repeat payment against any previous payment without needing the credit card details of your customer. All you will need to make the payment is the original unique transaction code supplied to you by Protx.
Recurring Billing
Recurring Billing applies to merchants who process recurring, regular or subscription payments. If you wish to set up recurring billing with Protx, you will need to obtain a Continuous Authority merchant number from Lloyds TSB Cardnet.
This Continuous Authority merchant number can be added to your existing Protx account allowing you to take recurring payments through any of our VSP systems through one Protx account. You will not need to store the card details yourself if you do not wish to do so.
Refund
You can refund any amount up to, but not exceeding, the original amount of the transaction.