Authorization Reversals

An authorization reversal releases the hold that an authorization placed on the customer’s payment card funds.

Each card-issuing financial institution has its own rules for deciding whether an authorization reversal succeeds or fails. When a reversal fails, contact the card-issuing financial institution to learn whether there is a different way to reverse the authorization.

If your processor supports authorization reversal after void (ARAV), you can reverse an authorization after you void the associated capture. If your processor does not support ARAV, you can use the authorization reversal service only for an authorization that has not been captured and settled.

An authorization reversal is a follow-on transaction that uses the request ID returned from an authorization. The main purpose of a follow-on transaction is to link two transactions. The request ID links the follow-on transaction to the original transaction. The authorization request ID is used to look up the customer’s billing and account information in the

Cybersource

database. You are not required to include those fields in the full authorization reversal request. The original transaction and follow-on transaction are linked in the database and in

the

Business Center

.

For processors that support debit cards and prepaid cards, authorization reversal works for debit cards and prepaid cards in addition to credit cards.