Section 3: Introduction to Processing Card Payments

This section looks at how card payments are processed over the card scheme’s network. If you are setting up a card programme for the first time you and your technical implementation team should read this section to understand some of the message standards and process flows relating to processing card payment transactions.

In this guide we concentrate on payments made across European, UK and many Asia Pacific networks using the Dual Message Standard. Some regions and acquirers may implement the Single Message Standard. Thredd supports both message standards. For more information, see Dual vs. Single Message System.

 

Payment Channels

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What are payment channels?

What are some of the differences between payment channels in terms of the processing rules and the way in which the payments are authorised?

Transaction Message Types

Transaction Message Types

More about Message Types

What are the main transaction message types?

Who defines the messaging types that are available and the messaging format used?

Other Transaction Types

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What other types of transactions are there?

Processing Codes

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What processing codes are associated with each transaction type?

Payment Life cycle

The Payment Lifecycle

Why do we have a payment life cycle?

What is the payment life cycle?

Are there regional variations?

What's the difference between how Online and Offline messages are processed?

Processing Transactions with Thredd

Processing Transactions with Thredd

Who decides when to approve or decline a transaction, and how does this process differ depending on the channel in which the payment is made (e-commerce, MOTO, POS)?

What happens when a system is unavailable to approve or decline?

Maintaining the Account Balance

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How do we check and keep the actual balance and available balance on the cardholder's account up-to-date?

How will this be affected in scenarios where a payment transaction is authorised offline?

Responding to Transaction Messages

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How are different messages types processed?

Processing Refunds and Reversals

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How can payment refunds and reversals be submitted and how should they be processed?

Accessing Card Scheme Systems

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What type of systems/platform do the schemes make available to both participants and network users such as Issuers?

How do program managers get access to these systems?

Payment Services Regulations

Complying with Payment Services Regulations

As a program manager, what are some of the regulations that you need to be aware of?