A-10 Capture Delay

Capture Delay enables you to specify a delay between the authorisation of a payment and its capture. This allows you time to verify the order and choose whether to fulfil it or cancel it. This can be very helpful in preventing chargebacks due to fraud. 

When NOT using capture delay, payments are authorised and captured immediately – funds are automatically debited from the Customer’s credit or debit card at that time.

When using capture delay, the payment is authorised only at the time of payment – funds are reserved against the credit or debit card and will not be debited until the payment is captured; or not at all if you cancel. 

The Customer experience with capture delay is the same as when capture delay is not used. The Customer will not know whether you are using capture delay or not.

 If you choose to use capture delay, you can use the captureDelay request field to specify the number of days for which capture is delayed, within a range of 0 to 30 days. Alternatively, you can use the value -1 or ‘never’ to specify that the Gateway should never automatically capture in which case you must manually capture. 

The Gateway will automatically capture the transaction after any delay specified unless you manually cancel or capture the transaction, using either the Direct Integration or via the Merchant Management System (MMS).

Note that some cards require capture within 4 to 5 days – if payment is not automatically captured within that period, the transaction will expire, and the reserved funds will be released to the Customer. 

Why Use Capture Delay? 

Capture delay allows you to accept online orders normally but allows you to cancel any transactions that you cannot or will not fulfil, thereby reducing the risks of chargeback. If you receive an order that appears to be fraudulent or that you cannot or do not wish to fulfil, you can simply cancel the transaction. 

Note: Cancelling a transaction may not always reverse the authorisation and release the funds back to the Customer. This is dependent on the Acquirer and in these cases the authorisation will never be settled and will be left to expire releasing any reserved funds. The time taken for this varies between cards. 

Some Acquirers do not support delayed capture, in which case the Hosted Integration will return a responseCode of 66358 (INVALID CAPTURE DELAY).