1 Overview of Thredd Portal: Cards and Transaction Management

This topic introduces the Thredd Portal: Cards and Transaction Management, describes its key features and components, and explains how you can use it to manage your card programme.

Thredd Portal: Cards and Transaction Management is the user interface for managing card accounts and transactions on the Thredd Platform.

Using Thredd Portal: Cards and Transaction Management, you can:

  • Use the home page to search for a card using the Card Token, or a transaction using a transaction ID

  • Search for a card using additional criteria, such as First Name and Last Name of the cardholder.

  • Display details about card activity, transaction type, and customer interaction

  • View a card's activity and status history

  • View a card's 3DS credentials

  • Drill down into the details of a specific transaction. For example, to view the:

    • Precise Point-of-Sale where a transaction took place

    • Chip settings at the time of transaction

    • Data stored on the chip of an individual card

    • Cardholder verification results

    • Terminal capability

  • Amend details and take appropriate actions, including:

    • Editing the cardholder details, for example, changing their address or phone number.

    • Editing the card configurations, for example, updating the Card Linkage Group or the Card Usage Group.

    • Adjusting the balance or loading / unloading an amount of money to a card.

    • Changing the card status, for example when a card has been lost or stolen.

    • Restoring blocked PINs and sending in-app notifications direct to customers

    • Providing customers with a clear explanation of transaction status

    • Accessing an instant easy-to-understand breakdown of card usage to share with customers

    • Applying filters when searching for a card

For more information, see the Key Concepts Guide and the Introduction to Card Payments Guide.

1.1 About the Card Payment Process

To understand what information Thredd Portal shows and how you can use it to manage your customers’ transactions and how a card can be used, you need to know about the card payment process.

The following diagram shows the key components in the payment flow:

Figure 1: Parties involved in the payment process.

When a cardholder uses a card to make a purchase in person, the authorisation request is sent from the merchant terminal to the merchant acquirer, and then to the relevant card scheme (payment network). The authorisation request is passed to Thredd for authorisation where it is processed according to the card usage rules determined by the Program Manager (card issuer).

1.1.1 Cards

Cards can be either physical or virtual. Physical cards are printed by a manufacturer and sent to the cardholder. Virtual cards are linked to a card image which is displayed to the cardholder. Thredd supports the following types of cards:

  • Prepaid cards and gift cards — the card is loaded with a prepaid amount available for the cardholder to spend. The card is not permitted to go into a negative balance, and you can provide a facility to enable cardholders to load additional funds to the card if required.

  • Credit cards — on the Thredd platform, there is no distinction between a prepaid and a credit card. If you offer cardholders a credit facility, you will need to have a separate arrangement with them relating to overdraft charges and loading the card with an available funds limit in accordance with the overdraft facility. The Thredd card must hold a sufficient balance to enable a card payment.

Thredd provides web services (both SOAP and REST) to create cards.

1.1.2 Card Usage Groups

Card usage groups are used to control what the cardholder can do with the card, as well as the various card usage fees that are charged to the cardholder.

1.1.3 Tokens

Tokens enable you to use the Thredd platform without needing to store or supply the full 16-digit card primary account number (PAN). Thredd Portal tokenises card numbers so that sensitive information is not shown. Thredd generates two types of tokens:

  • 9-digit unique random token, linked to the PAN. This is used in Thredd Portal to search for cards and displayed on the Card Details page.

  • 16-digit, formed from the 3-digit identifier, plus the 9-digit token, plus the last 4 digits of the PAN.

Both Mastercard and Visa offer a tokenisation service to card issuers. Mastercard offer the Digital Enablement Service (MDES), and Visa the Visa Token Service (VTS) which Thredd refers to as the Visa Digital Enablement Program (VDEP). Thredd supports both tokenisation services.

1.1.4 Acquirer

This is the merchant acquirer or bank that offers the merchant a trading account, to enable them to take payments in store or online from cardholders, for example, Worldpay.

1.1.5 Card Scheme

This is the card network, such as MasterCard or Visa, responsible for managing transactions over the network and for arbitration of any disputes.

1.1.6 Thredd Platform

The Thredd Platform is a robust, scalable issuer processing platform that is certified by Mastercard and Visa. The Thredd Platform supports Chip and PIN (EMV), magstripe, virtual and contactless card processing across prepaid, debit and credit rails. Thredd Portal is the user interface for the Thredd platform.

1.1.7 External Host Interface (EHI)

The External Host Interface (EHI) offers a way to exchange transactional data between the Thredd processing system and the Program Manager’s externally hosted systems. All transaction data processed by Thredd is transferred to the external host system via EHI in real time.

1.1.8 Card Transactions

The main transactions that take place on a card are:

  • Authorisations. These transactions occur at the stage where a merchant requests approval for a card payment by sending a request to the card issuer to check the card is valid, and the requested authorisation amount is available on the card. Funds are not deducted from the card at this stage.

  • Presentments. This is the stage in a transaction where the funds authorised on a card are captured (deducted from the cardholder’s account). Also referred to as the First presentment.

1.1.9 Program Manager (Issuer)

A Thredd customer who manages a card programme. The Program Manager can create branded cards, load funds, and provide other card or banking services to their end customers. Each Program Manager is assigned their own unique issuer code on the system.

The card issuer is typically a financial organisation authorised to issue cards. The issuer has a direct relationship with the relevant card scheme (payment network).