Credit card authorisation

date posted 6th April 2000 11:48

I've been reading all the recent posts regarding credit card
authorisation with interest but I currently have a slightly different
problem. I would really appreciate any advice that any of you could give.

One of my clients is a hire company. They want an ecommerce solution
where Joe Public can use his credit card to make a hire booking including
a refundable deposit. I'd like to use an online credit card provider to
do the authorisation - I don't really want credit card details stored on
my or the client's server for security reasons.

At the moment the only way I can see to do this is to take the full
amount (hire charge plus deposit) at the time of the booking and then put
through a refund for the deposit when the hire item is returned in good
condidtion. Unfortunately this would incur two lots of transaction
charges (which I think everyone agrees are already high).

Is there any way in which the authorisation process and the actual
transaction can be separated so that the credit card can be authorised at
the time of booking, but the transaction is delayed until the equipment
is returned - so that if the hire item is returned in good condition, the
deposit never actually gets charged?

Has anyone any experience in this area? I would really appreciate your
advice.

Ray McGinty