WorldPay Capture Delay - Preventing Fraud

What Is Capture Delay?

Capture delay is also known as pre-authorisation, deferred payments or deferred processing. Capture Delay enables you to specify a delay between the authorisation of a payment and its capture. This allows you time to verify the order and choose whether to fulfil it or cancel it. This can be very helpful in preventing chargebacks due to fraud.

When NOT using capture delay, payments are authorised and captured immediately - funds are automatically debited from the shoppers credit or debit card at that time.

When using capture delay, the payment is authorised only at the time of payment - funds are reserved against the credit or debit card and will not be debited until the payment is captured or cancelled.

The shopper experience with capture delay is exactly the same as when capture delay is not used. The shopper will not know whether you are using capture delay or not. There are no additional costs for using capture delay. All you need to do is set up capture delay within your WorldPay account and select the appropriate settings within FastCart

If you choose to use capture delay, you specify the number of days that capture is delayed for - this will be in the range of 0 - 15 days. Payments will automatically be captured after that delay unless you manually cancel the transaction within your WorldPay account. (Note that some cards require capture within 4-5 days - if payment is not automatically captured within that 4-5 day period, the transaction will expire and the reserved funds will be released to the shopper.)

Why Use Capture Delay?

Capture delay allows you to accept online orders normally, but allows you to cancel any transactions that you cannot or will not fulfil, thereby reducing the risks of chargeback. If you receive an order that appears to be fraudulent or that you cannot or do not wish to fulfil, you can simply cancel (void) the transaction within your WorldPay account.

How To Set Up Capture Delay

You can set up capture delay within your WorldPay account and change the capture delay settings at any time. Note that this is an automatic capture after a specified time period. You can also set your WorldPay and FastCart accounts so that payments are never automatically captured (all payments must be manually captured). You will also need to select the appropriate AuthMode settings in the WorldPay settings page in the FastCart control panel.

Login to your WorldPay account then click Profile, then Configuration Details. You may then need to select the merchant code to configure. Scroll down and you'll see the Capture Delay setting for this merchant code. Set capture delay according to the following settings:

To automatically capture all payments without any delay:
Set Capture Delay in your WorldPay account to 0 (zero) - set AuthMode in your FastCart account to A

To automatically capture all payments with a delay of 1-14 days:
Set Capture Delay in your WorldPay account to a number 1-14 - set AuthMode in your FastCart account to A

To turn off automatic payment capture and manually capture all payments:
Set Capture Delay in your WorldPay account to OFF - set AuthMode in your FastCart account to E

When you have changed your settings, ensure you make test transactions to check that shoppers can make payments as normal. If you choose the wrong settings in your WorldPay and FastCart accounts, shoppers could see an error on the payment page.