What payment statuses are reported?

The payment has been sent to the financial institution and awaits a response. Depending on the response, the subsequent status can be AUTHORISED, REFUSED or ERROR. These responses are displayed in the Merchant Interface.

The financial institution has approved the payment. For credit/debit cards, this payment status is obtained immediately after the payment details are sent to the financial institution (provided, of course, the payment is authorised).

In the case of a credit/debit card payment, the amount is 'reserved' for you and will be deducted from the shopper's spending limit, but is not actually transferred yet. Note that the SETTLED status indicates that it has been transferred from the shopper to the Payment Service.

The payment attempt was refused because:

• The financial institution refused to authorise the payment. Possible reasons for a refusal include an exceeded credit limit, an incorrect expiry date or insufficient balance. Note that Worldpay are not always informed of the refusal reason by the relevant financial institution. When the Payment Service does receive a reason for refusal, this is made visible to you in the Payment Details pop-up box in the Merchant Interface.

• The Risk Management Service (RMS) refused the payment. This is Worldpay's built-in tool to reduce the risk of fraud. In such a case, the payment server sets the status to REFUSED and the payment details are not sent to the financial institution. Refusal reasons include the payment was blocked because it met criteria that you have set up using the RMS or that it met criteria set up by the Payment Service. For example, a card number or account holder name that is associated with known fraud attempts is identified.

For further details, refer to the Risk Management Service Guide.

The payment has not been successfully processed by the payment server. There can be different (technical) reasons for this payment status.

The shopper can retry a payment attempt that ended in a status ERROR.

The validity period of the authorisation of the payment has expired. This happens when no capture request is submitted for an authorised payment.

The authorisation (your right to collect the money) is cancelled. This status is obtained when you manually cancel a payment by using the Cancel button in the Payment Details pop-up box.

For further details, refer to Cancelling (Voiding) Payments.

The Payment Service has requested the relevant financial institution to charge the shopper for the goods and services they have bought from you. The period between an authorisation and a capture request is called the capture delay, and can be configured to be a fixed number of days from 0 up to a maximum of 14 days.

If you have set up a capture delay or have turned automatic capture off, you can 'manually' capture authorised payments by using a Capture button in the Payment Details pop-up box or the Bulk Capture facility.

For further details, refer to Capture and Capture Delay.

The Payment Service has received funds on your behalf from the financial network.

Settled payments accumulate and are stored in a batch for approximately one week. After a week, the batch closes to new settled payments. The transfer delay begins when the batch closes. If you have a standard contract with us, there is generally a negligible or one-day delay (depending on your settlement currency) before we initiate payment to you.

For further details about when and how you are paid, refer to the Accounting & Reconciliation guide.

The Payment Service (on your behalf) has requested the financial institution to make a refund.

For further details, refer to Refunding Payments.

The financial institution has acknowledged the refund request and the funds due for refund will be/has been transferred to the shopper's account. Note that the amount will be deducted from the funds due to be transferred to you.  

For further details about refunds, refer to Refunding Payments.

The financial institution has returned a message to indicate that the attempted refund was unable to be processed. Any funds which have left your account will be returned.

Chargebacks arrive in one of two forms: with or without prior notice by the financial institution. A prior notice is called a Request for Information. When Worldpay receives a Request for Information for a payment, the system automatically sends you an email (if you have configured the system to do so).

The status of the payment is changed to INFORMATION_REQUESTED and the payment is displayed on the Dispute Management page.

For further details about disputed payments, refer to the Disputed Payments guide.

To try to avoid a chargeback you can respond to an Information Request by supplying information. The Dispute Management tool in the Merchant Interface enables you to send this information directly to the financial institution. The status of the payment then changes to INFORMATION_SUPPLIED.

For further details about disputed payments, refer to the Disputed Payments guide.

The shopper/cardholder reversed a capture processed by their bank or credit/debit card company. For instance, the shopper contacts their credit/debit card company and denies having made the transaction or informs them that goods or services they have paid for have not been received.

The credit/debit card company then revokes the already captured payment.

For further details about disputed payments, refer to the Disputed Payments guide.

Occasionally, an unsolicited financial transaction may occur, for example, when a second chargeback for the same order arrives from the financial institution. To prevent an erroneous unbalance on your account as a result of such an incorrect transaction, Worldpay creates a counter transaction where the payment status is set to CHARGEBACK_REVERSED.

Note that payments made to you under the Guarantee scheme will also result in a CHARGEBACK_REVERSED status. Refer to the Worldpay Guarantee guide for further details.

If a disputed transaction has exceeded predefined  rules in regards to the timeframe a financial institution has to make a chargeback decision, the payment service may, when contacted, manually change the transaction status to a state of DISPUTE_EXPIRED. Funds held on this dispute will be returned.

An indication that an ongoing dispute with a financial institution has been ruled in favour of the merchant. No chargeback will occur from this dispute, and funds held on the dispute will be returned.

Specific to PayPal transactions. Notification that funds are being held by PayPal as a result of a dispute being raised. If you see this status, we recommend that you submit defence information.

Specific to PayPal transactions. Funds held by PayPal as the result of a dispute have now been released. This does not indicate whether or not a payment has been charged back. For more information about this transaction, contact PayPal.

Occasionally, an unsolicited financial transaction may occur, for example, when a second chargeback for the same order arrives from the financial institution. To prevent an erroneous unbalance on your account as a result of such an incorrect transaction, Worldpay creates a counter transaction where the payment status is set to CHARGEBACK_REVERSED.

Note that payments made to you under the Guarantee scheme will also result in a CHARGEBACK_REVERSED status. Refer to the Worldpay Guarantee guide for further details.