Card transaction processing and settlement

Overview

Solaris handles all aspects of processing card transactions without any actions required by you. This includes:

  • Receiving authorizations and creating reservations on the account connected to the respective card.
  • Settling reservations and converting them into bookings after receiving clearing reports from MasterCard and VISA.
  • Updating or canceling reservations based on information received by the MasterCard and VISA networks.
  • Processing chargebacks and crediting refunds.

Here is a high-level description of how Solaris handles a card transaction:

  1. Your customers conduct payments using their cards.
  2. Solaris receives all information related to customer card transactions, including (but not limited to) authorizations, reversals, settlements and refunds, every day shortly after midnight (even on non-business days).
  3. Solaris then creates, updates, cancels, and settles reservations based on the received data. Solaris also handles received refunds using a fully automated process.
  4. When a reservation is settled or a refund is credited, Solaris converts it into a booking on the connected account.

Cards and accounts always share the same available balance. Any transactions with the card or bookings on the connected account will immediately reflect on one another.

Declined transactions

When a customer's card transaction is declined, you will receive a webhook notification on the CARD_AUTHORIZATION_DECLINE_V2 webhook.

The webhook notification payload will contain information about the declined transaction and one or more reasons for the decline. There are two types of decline reasons:

  • Card spending controls: The transaction was declined because it did not meet the parameters of one or more card spending controls that you introduced.

  • Compliance reasons: Solaris' system flagged the transaction for one or more reasons described in the appendix below.

    • The appendix linked above includes a list of pre-approved messages that you must display to your customers on your frontend. Please contact your Partner Manager if you wish to use different wording.
    • See the Cards Smart Agent guide for information about how Solaris flags and handles fraudulent transactions.

3DS transactions

3D Secure (3DS) (also known as payer authentication) is a security protocol that adds an additional layer of security to online credit and debit card payments. 3DS refers to three domains which interact using the protocol. These domains are the merchant/acquirer domain, the issuer domain, and the interoperability domain.

3DS requires customers to complete an additional verification step with their card issuer during the final stage of checkout in e-commerce transactions. Typically, customers get forwarded to their bank to authenticate the payment by entering a one-time SMS code, biometrics, bank app, or other authentication methods. Some common examples of 3DS include Verified by Visa, Mastercard SecureCode, and American Express SafeKey.

Click here to read more about 3DS transactions and how to support them in your solution.