Partial Authorization Service (PAS)
Paysafe is introducing the Partial Authorisation Service (PAS) to its merchants to help mitigate insufficient funds declines (3022). This guide is intended to help merchants understand the requirements for using the service, as well as the available flows to utilise the offering.
PAS enables merchants to perform up to three successful authorisation attempts during a single checkout session for their cardholders/customers. Currently, when a cardholder lacks sufficient funds to make a purchase or top up their merchant account, the transaction results in a 3022 insufficient funds decline.
PAS allows the authorisation request to be partially approved. For example, if a cardholder wishes to top up or purchase an item online worth $100 but only has $80 available on their chosen card, the $80 will be authorised instead of the transaction being declined. The merchant can then offer the cardholder up to two more opportunities (including the first authorised transaction) to pay the remaining $20 using another card.
Prerequisites and Activation
- Merchants already registered with Paysafe will have the Partial Authorisation Service (PAS) pre-configured. New merchants need to register with Paysafe before accessing this service.
- Add the following object to your payment requests.
"partialAuth": {
"allowPartialAuth": true
}
| TRUE | Transaction qualifies for a partial authorisation. |
| FALSE | Transactions does not qualifiy for a partial authorisation and any insufficient funds recognised in the payment flow will result in the current 3022 insufficient funds decline. |
- Including allowPartialAuth as TRUE or FALSE flag in the API request will serve as a confirmation that the merchant consents to use the partial authorisation service and accepts it.
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Not all issuers support partial authorisations. If the issuing bank does not support this feature, a transaction will be declined for insufficient funds—even if partial authorisation service flags are enabled.
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Partial authorisation service is supported for Visa and Mastercard payments.
Integration Options
- Cards and Payments API: Yes
- Paysafe Checkout: No
- Paysafe JS: No
- Mobile SDKs: No
- POS Terminal (Card Present): No
Partial authorisation service is currently available for UK/EEA Acquiring merchants only (it is currently not available for North American merchants until Q4 2025 / Q1 2026).
How does partial authorization work?
- When the requested transaction amount exceeds the available balance in the cardholder’s account, enabling this parameter prompts the issuing bank to authorise the available amount rather than decline the transaction outright.
- The merchant is responsible for tracking any remaining unpaid amount. The payment response will indicate the amount authorised. If this is less than the requested amount, the merchant must decide how to proceed—whether to initiate further attempts or handle the shortfall another way.
- During reconciliation, all partial authorisations related to a single transaction must be linked and treated as part of the same payment journey.
- At each stage of checkout and after each partial authorisation attempt, the cardholder must have the option to cancel the transaction.
- If the transaction is cancelled or cannot continue through the partial authorisation process, any previously authorised amounts must be reversed or refunded.
- From the first authorisation response, a Group ID will be provided. This ID must be included in all subsequent partial authorisation requests within the same checkout session to correctly associate them for reconciliation purposes.
- For each new attempt, the cardholder must use an alternative card. The same card used in a prior attempt must not be used again for that session.
- If a merchant intends to collect only a portion of the funds (for example, for services like iGaming top-ups), they should not initiate additional partial authorisation attempts for the remaining balance. The cardholder must be informed that only part of the requested amount was accepted.
Example Flow
The merchant initiates a transaction for EUR 100.
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In response, a partial authorization was received for EUR 40.
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The merchant then submitted a second transaction for the remaining EUR 60.
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Again, a partial authorization was granted, this time for EUR 40.
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Finally, the merchant initiated a third transaction for the remaining EUR 20.
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Merchant received partially authorised response with fully authorized amount for EUR 20.
Reversals/Refunds
If the cardholder cancels the session or fails to complete the transaction, you must refund the funds by reversing each individual transaction.
Example: If the user cancels at step 9, both transaction 1 and transaction 2 must be reversed.
Case 1: settleWithAuth: true
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Transaction is authorized.
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Settlement is pending.
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To reverse, cancel the settlement.
Case 2: settleWithAuth: false
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Transaction is authorized.
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Settlement is not triggered.
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To reverse, void the authorization using the Void Auth API.
For simpler reversal handling in partial authorisations, it is recommended to use settleWithAuth:false.
Billing and Reconciliation
The standard processing fee does not change for an authorisation request even when qualifying the transaction for the PAS by sending a TRUE request in the API. Each PAS attempt. whether authorised or declined by the issuing bank, will incur the same processing fee individually.
Example:
- Standard transaction fee = 10 cents for 1 transaction.
- $100 authorised with 1 transaction will be 10 cents.
- $100 authorised with 2 PAS transactions ($60 and $40) will be 20 cents in total (10 cents each).
Merchants can access their Paysafe merchant portal (Optic) to view partial authorisation transactions.
Testing
| Amount (USD in minor unit) | Partially Approved Amount | Remaining Amount |
|---|---|---|
| 1200 | 400 | 800 |
| 800 | 400 | 400 |
| 400 | 400 | 0 |
| 1000 | 500 | 500 |
| 500 | 250 | 250 |
| 250 | 250 | 0 |
FAQs
You need to apply the PAS objects into your current API integration. This is only applicable to the Cards and Payments APIs. You also need to send the TRUE flag to qualify the transaction.
Yes, you can. Using the TRUE and FALSE flags, merchants can choose whether or not to apply the PAS to any of their transactions. This gives merchants full control over its usage rather than applying it as a blanket activation on all transactions.
For example, a merchant may only want to offer the service to their VIPs or regular customers/cardholders who have previously experienced insufficient funds transactions.
You have up to two more transaction attempts available. You will need to initiate a new transaction request and apply the Group ID from the first PAS attempt to link the transactions together within the same purchase session.
You have up to three successfully authorised attempts per session where the Group ID is the same. Declined attempts do not count towards these three attempts. Therefore, you could have more than three total attempts, including declines. The limit only applies after the third successful attempt. The exception to this is if a declined transaction has occured and is due to Suspected Fraud (3054 decline code). Any previous transactions must be returned to the authorised cards and the checkout session must be closed.
You must end the session and not apply any further partial authorisation attempts for that checkout session. If a fourth attempt is made with the same Group ID after the three successful attempts, but the full funds are still not collected, the transaction will be blocked. The response message will be Error code 5068: Either you submitted a request that is missing a mandatory field or the value of a field does not match the format expected.
You will then need to request for reversals/refunds for all funds previously collected.
Yes, the cardholder must have the option to cancel the transaction at any point during the checkout. A cancel transaction capability must be available at each stage of the checkout journey. If the cardholder cancels in these scenarios, the merchant must request reversals or refunds of any funds already authorised in the session.
No. Responsibility for collecting the full funds for a purchase or account top-up lies solely with the merchant. Paysafe is not liable for any goods or services dispatched without full payment.