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Preauthorization

Definition

Preauthorization means the reservation of an amount.
It is a money guarantee, whereby a certain amount is blocked and retained for a predefined period of at least seven days. There is no maximum reservation amount. It depends on the card issuer.

Remarks

📅
Preauthorizations are usually valid for 7 days (depends on the card issuer)
1⃣
You can debit the pre-authorization exactly once.
The amount to be debited cannot exceed the reserved amount. A smaller or equal debit is possible.
🔒
The reserved amount can be guaranteed to be debited if the time period is observed.

Purpose of use

Preauthorizations are commonly used in hotels. Pre-authorized payments allow funds to be held either at the booking stage or at check-in. Reserving an amount can ensure that a guest do not leave without paying and additional costs (minibar, spa) are covered.
Car rental companies usually use pre-authorization for their customers. By withholding funds when renting a car, it is possible to ensure that the vehicle is returned in the desired condition and with a full tank of fuel. In case the car is damaged or fuel is needed, the holdback covers these costs.

Integration

Via API or Gateway

See our Developers Docs for instructions on implementing pre-authorization as a payment method via API or gateway:

Via Payrexx Tools

After registering a payment provider that supports pre-authorization, you can easily select the "Pre-authorization" payment method in our tools.
Example: Enabling pre-authorization in Pages Tool:
You can find a more detailed article on pre-authorizations in our developer documentation.