Credit Card Processing Transaction Types

Keith Reyes
7 min readAug 16, 2022

Introduction

Credit card transactions are one of the most important parts of your business. They’re how you generate revenue and pay your employees, but there are many different options when it comes to processing those transactions. In this article, we’ll discuss all of the different types of credit card transactions and how they can affect your business.

Credit Card Processing Transaction Types

Authorization Only

Authorization and Capture

Refunds or Voids

Recurring Billing and Payments

B2B Credit Card Processing Transactions

Cross-Border and International Processing Transactions

What Is a Credit Card Transaction?

A credit card transaction is a business-customer exchange that uses a credit card as the payment method. Credit cards are a popular choice for larger purchases and online transactions, but they can also be used for smaller transactions at brick-and-mortar stores. When you swipe or insert your card into the point of sale (POS) system and enter your PIN or sign for a purchase, that’s considered to be a credit card transaction.

The three main types of credit card transactions include:

Swipe: The customer swipes their plastic through an electronic reader that sends information about their account to the merchant’s bank server through wires or wireless networks like Wi-Fi. The bank then sends funds from the customer’s account to pay for goods or services purchased at places such as gas stations, restaurants and retail stores

Signature: A customer signs on an electronic pad with their finger instead of using cash so they don’t have to carry around large amounts of money while shopping in person — this type of payment method is typically used when purchasing items online because it doesn’t require any additional equipment besides what comes standard inside most computers/laptops/tablets today; however if someone wanted something even more secure than just typing out numbers onto another device then this would definitely provide extra comfort knowing there’s no chance someone could hack into those records easily since it requires two signatures before anything goes through!

What Are the Different Types of Credit Card Transactions?

The following is a list of the different types of credit card processing transactions:

Authorization Only/Preauthorization. When you process a transaction where the funds are not yet collected, it’s called an authorization. This type of transaction is used to verify that a customer has enough available credit to make the purchase. It also protects your business from fraud by ensuring that there isn’t another card being used for payment (also called double spending). For example, if someone steals your customer’s credit card information and tries to make an unauthorized purchase online with it, you can prevent this by using authorization only when taking payment through your e-commerce website or app.

Authorization and Capture (aka Sale). When you process a transaction during which funds will be collected immediately after approval, then it is known as an authorization and capture sale. For example, if someone swipes their own debit card at checkout in person at one of your brick-and-mortar stores or swipes their own debit/credit cards online on one of your websites using Shopify POS or WooCommerce (or any other shopping cart software), then this would be considered an authorization and capture sale since such processes allow the immediate collection of funds upon approval (i.e., upon submission). Note that these two words aren’t interchangeable — you may have noticed them both above but they mean different things! So don’t get confused! :)

A credit card transaction is simply a business-customer exchange that uses a credit card as the payment method. It is a common practice for cardholders to use their credit cards for purchases, especially for larger transactions and online purchases. There are several different types of credit card transactions and depending on the situation, some could save your business money.

Credit Card Terms & Conditions

When you accept a customer’s offer with your point-of-sale (POS) system or tablet, you will be asked to accept the terms and conditions that are displayed on their screen. In short, this means that if there are any issues with the purchase being made with their credit card — including disputes later on — you may not want to process these types of payments through Square; instead, look into other options like PayPal Here or Intuit GoPayment which don’t require you to sign up directly with them but instead let customers pay directly from their bank account via ACH transfer without having an active checking account at all!

Authorization Only/Preauthorization

The first part of the transaction process, Authorization Only/Preauthorization, is a temporary authorization on a customer’s credit card. The merchant sends their batch to authorize all of the transactions included in it. If this step contains exactly one valid transaction, then it will be processed automatically and no other steps are necessary.

If there are multiple valid transactions in your batch or if some of them fail to process for any reason (such as insufficient funds), then you will need to move on to one of two follow-up steps: Void or Capture Transaction(s).

Authorization and Capture (aka Sale)

Authorization and Capture (aka Sale)

Authorization and Capture transactions are the most common type of credit card transaction. In this process, you first authorize the transaction with your merchant service provider, which allows you to capture it later on when you can verify that it was successfully completed by a customer.

If a customer uses their card for multiple purchases during one session (for example, they use their card to pay for dinner and then pay for drinks at the bar), then each individual purchase requires its own authorization. However, once all of those authorizations have been captured using processing software like Square or PayPal Here POS’s app, only one final capture is required to actually record all charges against a single account in order to ensure that no credit is spent twice or lost due to fraud detection systems failing on earlier authorizations that were not captured properly.

Refunds or Voids (aka Credit)

A refund or void transaction is commonly used when a cardholder returns an item, cancels a service or makes a payment with a gift card. The merchant will credit back the amount of the charge to their account, and it’s up to them how they want that money handled from there.

Recurring Billing and Payments

Recurring billing is a process where a business charges customers for the same product or service on a regular basis. It’s an important part of any company’s overall revenue strategy, used by many businesses to drive recurring revenue.

Recurring billing can be applied to any industry, but it is especially popular in industries such as online services and eCommerce. Recurring billing models are often used to build recurring revenue that supports funding other expenses or projects, thereby allowing businesses to grow without having to rely solely on one-time sales or large investments from investors.

B2B Credit Card Processing Transactions

B2B credit card processing is not restricted to one type of business, but it is commonly used for payroll. B2B transactions can also be used for paying vendors, paying employees, and even funding employee training programs. These types of transactions are common in large businesses with multiple locations and a large number of employees who travel between those locations on a regular basis.

Cross-Border and International Processing Transactions

Cross-border and international transactions are essential to many businesses, especially if you’re selling products or services internationally. If you’ve ever traveled abroad on business, you know that it’s sometimes necessary to use your credit card to pay for things in another country.

Cross-border and international merchant accounts allow businesses to accept payments using their cards outside of the United States. These types of accounts are available through payment gateways such as Stripe or PayPal (as well as many others), which process transactions in multiple currencies and have features like fraud protection and 24/7 customer service support.

The good news is that it’s fairly simple to get a cross-border or international merchant account — you just need a few pieces of personal information about yourself and your business, such as its address and annual revenue, along with proof of identity for tax purposes (like an IRS EIN number).

While Most Businesses Perform Authorization Only and Authorization & Capture Transactions

While most businesses perform authorization only and authorization & capture transactions, there are some unique processing types that are growing in popularity for specific businesses.

Split tender: An authorization & capture transaction where the amount of the purchase is split between two payment types. For example, your customer purchases $100 worth of goods but chooses to pay with a $50 cashier’s check and a $50 credit card. In this case, you would authorize $100 on their card and then process two separate transactions: one for the cashier’s check ($50) and one for the remaining balance ($50). This type of transaction can be useful if you want to accept checks without having an open account relationship with your financial institution or if you want to provide customers with flexibility in how they pay for products or services.

Conclusion

Credit card processing can be a complex topic and it’s important that you know how it works. Each type of transaction has its own benefits and drawbacks, so it’s up to your business to decide what method is best for you. If you need help deciding which option might work best for your company

To know more visit our website- https://paypound.ltd/

--

--

Keith Reyes

I am Keith Reyes fintech enthusiast working for high-risk businesses and confident with my work as lead gen and self-motivator. Innovative marketer/ proactive/