cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

No Card Code response on Zero Dollar Authorizations

I've recently been trying to use Zero Dollar Authorizations to validate information on certain cards before handling them further. That is, we're posting AUTH_ONLY transactions with an amount of $0.00. Unfortunately, we're not getting any response for the card code, which is one of the data points I'd really need to validate in this context.

 

When sending through the API (live account, live mode, live card), we get a blank value back where a card code response should be. We've checked our request with the data validator, and we're definitely formatting the request correctly. More recently, we've been testing responses using the Authorize Virtual Terminal (again, everything live), and we get back "Card Code: Not Applicable" on these transactions.

 

We've also tried the same requests with an amount of $0.01, and we do get an appropriate card code response when the amount is nonzero, both through the API and the Virtual Terminal. When everything else is the same, but the amount is zero, then we get no card code response. These results are consistent across several different cards that we've tested. At this point I'm reasonably confident that it's a systemic or account-level issue, rather than us doing something wrong or testing with an anomalous card.

 

I've gone back and forth between our processor and Authorize a couple of times, but haven't gotten anywhere. Authorize Support has suggested that maybe a Zero Dollar Authorization isn't supposed to return a card code response. That doesn't jive with anything I've ever read about those transactions, including a Visa Merchant Guide and Authorize's own statement about how they're going to support Zero Dollar Authorizations, but that's what they're telling me at the moment.

 

Does anybody else send Zero Dollar Authorizations through Authorize.net? If so, does the card code get validated with an appropriate response code, or are you getting nothing back as well? Or, has anybody else encountered and resolved the same difficulty in getting card code responses?

aastevenson
Member
6 REPLIES 6

@aastevenson wrote:

Authorize Support has suggested that maybe a Zero Dollar Authorization isn't supposed to return a card code response. [...]

 

Does anybody else send Zero Dollar Authorizations through Authorize.net? If so, does the card code get validated with an appropriate response code, or are you getting nothing back as well?


Perhaps I should ask a different question:

 

Would anyone else be willing to run a live AUTH_ONLY transaction for $0.00 and post the card code results here? Authorize Support has been "researching" the issue for several weeks now and still can't tell me how this is supposed to behave. Everything I've read indicates that I'm supposed to get a card code response. I suspect something's misconfigured in either my Authorize account, or with my processor, but Authorize is refusing to review my account settings until they confirm that it's possible to get a card code response on a zero dollar authorization.

aastevenson
Member

Hello @aastevenson



I've escalated your issue to the product team for analysis.

I'd recommend subscribing to this topic so that you'll be alerted via email if there are updates. To subscribe, click Topic Options at the top of this thread and then select Subscribe. You'll then receive an email once anyone replies to your post.

Thanks,

Richard

Richard,

 

Thank you, but my issue has already been escalated, according to this e-mail I received three weeks ago. I haven't heard back since my initial inquiry. When I called in most recently, I was told you still need to research whether or not card codes are supposed to be returned on these transactions.

 

That's why I've asked to see if another developer could try it and report on what happens -- to see if I could facilitate your "research". You're taking a really long time to figure out how your own interface works, and I'm trying to do whatever I can to help you help me.


@RichardH wrote:

To subscribe, click Topic Options at the top of this thread and then select Subscribe. You'll then receive an email once anyone replies to your post.


As an aside, this doesn't work. I see the "Subscribe" option, but it's grayed out, and I can't select it.

@aastevenson, you should be able to subscribe.  Your email addresses needed to be verified.

 

Richard

Authorize finally figured out that the issue is specific to the way they interface with the merchant processor. To enable card code responses on Zero Dollar Authorizations, the Authorize.Net merchant settings must have "Verified by Visa" and "MasterCard SecureCode" enabled.

 

With that change, I'm now receiving card code responses when I send $0 auth_only transactions for Visa, MasterCard, and Discover. American Express still isn't working, but Authorize is attempting to fix it.