What are the different payment types?

When you start looking at taking payments, you'll need to think about how your business operates and the kind of products you'll be selling so that you can match this to the way you take payments from customers' cards. Here's some information on card payment types, to get you started...

Regular payments:

This is instant and is the fastest way to get to your customers’ money.

Good for:

• Those selling 'in stock' items for instant delivery

Deferred and Release payments:

This is a method whereby you can capture payment and authorisation for a specific amount without immediately taking the funds. For example, this payment method works well for those who have longer lead times to dispatch goods who are building bespoke goods. It’s also important to note that there is a finite timeframe for settling a deferred payment; this is usually within 3–6 days.

Good for:

• Those wanting to delay payment; either until goods come into stock or to perform further fraud checks
• Those selling personalised items with a lead time of up to 5 days

Authenticate and Authorise payments:

This is a method where you can take the customer's card details, perform a 3DSecure check (Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode) and process or'authorise' the payment for up to 90 days (30 days for maestro cards) afterwards. It's important to note, however that the customers' card isn't shadowed with this type of payment, which means that the funds are not guaranteed.

Good for:

• Those selling bespoke/made-to-order goods
• Items where the final cost is not defined at the time of order
• Payments made in installments.

Repeat payments:

These work in exactly the same way as regular payment, but stored card details (either by the vendor or the payment gateway) can be used to trigger a second, third and fourth payment of any amount.

Good for:

• Processing additional charges to an original payment, such as postage and packaging
• Those selling goods with a regular subscription.

Token payments:

These are like the authenticate and authorise payment types, but more sophisticated. Here your payment service provider (PSP) converts card details into a token and passes the token back to you. This enables single click payments, a slick checkout process and reduces the time and cost associated to PCI DSS compliance.

Good for:

• Those wanting to streamline the payment process and retain customer details for 'next purchase' use

Refunds:

A payment has been taken, but needs to be allocated back to the customer. This is usually used in the case of returns or faulty goods.

Other payment types include:

Manual payments

Void transactions