Authorization Transactions

The Authorization transaction enables you to confirm that a customer has submitted a valid payment method with their order and has sufficient funds to purchase the goods or services they ordered.

The lifespan of an authorization varies according to the payment type being used, as shown in Table 3-1. During the lifespan, you can use a valid authorization multiple times as needed.

To submit an AVS Only request, submit an Authorization request with the amount element set to 000. The response is identical to an Authorization response message.

TABLE 3-1 Lifespan of a Payment Authorization

Payment Type	Authorization Lifespan	Incremental Authorization Lifespan
American Express	7 days	30 days for Incremental Authorization
Discover	10 days	30 days for Incremental Authorization
Mastercard	7 days	30 days for Incremental Authorization
Visa	7 days	30 days for Incremental Authorization

This section describes the format you must use for an Authorization request, as well as the format of the Authorization Response you receive from us.