Identifying Prepaid Cards before capture

[plasticpayday]

I have searched the board, but have only seen limited discussion of singling-out prepaid cards before capture (which basically say you can't).

In AIM, if x_allow_partial_auth=TRUE then I can get these fields in the output:

• x_prepaid_balance_on_card

• x_prepaid_requested_amount

• x_card_type

I understand I will not always get a response for the card balance, e.g. for debit cards where the account information is sensitive, but I should get a response for prepaid cards such as prepaid "gift" cards that aren't necessarily tied to a paticular individual, right?

I have also seen indication that only MasterCard and Discover will populate these fields; does anyone know if Visa or Amex prepaid cards will retrun a balance, or any other indication the card is a prepaid card versus a regular debit or credit card?

In short, I'd like to identify prepaid cards (versus debit cards and credit cards) prior to capture (authorize only).

Thanks for any input.

[TJPride]

http://community.developer.authorize.net/t5/Integration-and-Testing/Dening-Prepaid-Debit-Cards/td-p/...

Well, your searching was correct - there's no way to identify prepaid cards.

http://community.developer.authorize.net/t5/Integration-and-Testing/Prepaid-Card-Balance/td-p/7086

And the prepaid fields will only populate if the card has insufficient balance.

[plasticpayday]

Well, I could try to authorize each card for a million dollars to determine if it's prepaid. 

[TJPride]

Then you'd hit the maximum transaction size trigger and probably get your account flagged as well.

[plasticpayday]

Do we know exactly which cards will populate these fields when a partial_auth is required?  e.g., Visa, MasterCard, Amex, etc, as well as whether only certain types of prepaid cards will populate the field, e.g. open-loop vs. closed-loop, reloadable vs. non-reloadable.

[TJPride]

I really have no idea. We'll have to wait for a mod on this one.

[Michelle]

Hey there,

As previously noted, there is no way for you to check prior to the transaction whether the card is a prepaid card or not. As for the card type question, the mandates were for MasterCard, Discover, JCB and Diner's only. However, when Authorize.Net implemented the support in our system, we did it so that all card types (so Visa and AMEX also) will return the appropriate partial auth responses. For more info on the partial auth mandates, you can see our FAQs.

Hope that helps.

Thanks,

Michelle

Developer Community Manager