Businesses in specific industries, especially hospitality, car rental, fuel, and travel, often do not know the final amount when the first authorization is made. An estimated authorization allows you to place an authorization hold for an estimated amount that can be adjusted later.

Upon an estimated authorization request being received, this feature allows you to adjust the authorized amount, but only within the validity period of the estimated authorization. If the cardholder spends more than expected, you can get additional authorization using an incremental authorization request.

Industries like hospitality, car rental, fuel, and travel often need to adjust the initial authorization due to unknown final amounts, using estimated and incremental authorizations.

  • Car rental
    A car rental agency estimates an authorization amount that includes the rental fee, taxes, and mileage rates. However, when the vehicle is returned, the agency needs to increase the authorization amount to cover additional fees, such as insurance or extra services.

  • Hotel services
    A hotel places an initial authorization for the room cost. If the guest uses additional services, such as meals or spa treatments, the hotel places incremental authorizations to cover the extra costs and adjusts the authorized amount accordingly.

  • Online tourism
    A tourism company estimates an authorization for the initial booking. If the customer adds excursions or other services during the trip, the company issues incremental authorizations to cover the additional costs, increasing the total authorized amount.


Authorization type

Authorization types authorization_type define how payment amounts are approved, allowing you to manage transactions based on whether the final amount is known upfront or needs to be increased later.

  • Final final authorization refers to the process where the final purchase amount is known at the time the purchase begins.
    By default, Solidgate handles all card payment requests as final authorizations.
  • Estimated estimated authorization where the final transaction amount is not immediately known.
    An estimated authorization must be a genuine estimate and must not be an arbitrary amount. This type of authorization allows you to seek an estimated authorization when the final amount of a transaction is not known at the time a purchase begins and to use incremental authorizations when the initially estimated amount is insufficient.
  • Incremental incremental authorization increases the total authorized amount.
    You can request multiple incremental authorizations for a single transaction if the initially authorized amount is insufficient.

In financial entries report, authorization fees record_type_key AUTHORIZATION_FEE are charged for each authorization attempt within a single order. Thus, there is one fee for the initial estimated authorization and an additional fee for each incremental authorization.


Requirements

Before implementing estimated and incremental authorization, consider the following requirements, limitations, and preparations.

  1. Verify payment method availability and eligibility based on your Merchant Category Code (MCC).
    Payment method availability
    Payment method Availability
    Card Card schemes set specific rules around which businesses can use incremental authorizations.

    Your eligibility is determined by:
    • Your Merchant Category Code (MCC), for a business type, each card scheme uses a different MCC.
    • Card brand for which authorization increase is available.
    Network token Available if the card associated with the network token is a card brand for which an authorization increase is available.
    Google Pay Available if the card associated with the Google Pay wallet is a card brand for which an authorization increase is available.
    Apple Pay Available if the card associated with the Apple Pay wallet is a card brand for which an authorization increase is available.
    For cases where a card brand does not support the estimated auth feature, you received 2.04 Card brand is not supported.
  2. Review the card scheme availability for your business type. Card scheme availability
    Card scheme Merchant Category Codes (MCC)
    American Express All MCCs except 5542
    Discover 3351-3441, 3501-3999, 4111, 4112, 4121, 4131, 4411, 4457, 5499, 5812, 5813, 7011, 7033, 7996, 7394, 7512, 7513, 7519, 7999
    Mastercard All MCCs except 5542
    Visa All MCCs except 5542
  3. Finalize the payment by settlement.
    Or the issuer can be notified via a void that the transaction with the full amount has been canceled, and the hold on the cardholder’s funds should be removed.
    Maximum estimated authorization length of time
    Card brands Debit/credit MCC Days
    American Express All All 7 days
    Cartes Bancaires All All 13 days
    Diners
    Debit All 7 days
    Credit All 30 days
    All Car Rental, Hotel/Lodging 30 days
    Discover All All 10 days
    All Car Rental, Hotel/Lodging 30 days
    JCB All All 1 year
    All Hotel and Car rental Time of stay/rental
    Mastercard All All 30 days
    Network MX Debit All 7 days
    Credit All 30 days
    Visa Electron All All 5 days
    Visa All All 5 days
    All Cruise, Lodging, Vehicle Rental 30 days
    All 7999, 4457, 7296, 7841, 7394, 7519, 7033 10 days
    All 5542 2 hours

Not all connectors support estimated and incremental authorizations.

Please ask your account manager if the feature could be activated on your connector.

Payment configuration

Configure estimated and incremental authorizations in two steps. First, create an estimated authorization, then optionally increase the authorized amount using incremental authorization.

Test estimated and incremental authorization to ensure your integration handles authorization types correctly.

Step 1. Estimated auth

To perform an estimated authorization, configure the payment request with the following settings:

  • authorization_type field to estimated
  • type field to auth

The authorization_type field with estimated value is valid in the one-time payment request:

Unavailable

Step 2. Incremental auth

Increment authorization operation allows you to increase the authorized amount for an existing estimated transaction.

To perform an incremental authorization, configure the request with order_id , returned in the response to the estimated auth request and amount , which represents the increment value to add to the initial authorization.

This operation creates a auth transaction with authorization_type incremental within the same order.

Preconditions
  • Initial authorization must have authorization_type estimated
  • Initial authorization must be successful, status auth_ok
  • Order must not have settle , void or refund transactions in the success or processing statuses
  • Previous increment must be in final status if it exists