How Credit Card Transaction Processing Works?

This article explains how a credit card transaction is process using the example of VISA.

Transaction processing involves the routing of payment information and related data to facilitate the authorization, clearing and settlement of transactions between Visa issuers, which are the financial institutions that issue Visa cards to cardholders, and acquirers, which are the financial institutions that offer Visa network connectivity and payments acceptance services to merchants.

Authorization is the process of approving or declining a transaction before a purchase is finalized or cash is disbursed. Clearing is the process of delivering final transaction data from an acquirer to an issuer for posting to the cardholder’s account, the calculation of certain fees and charges that apply to the issuer and acquirer involved in the transaction, and the conversion of transaction amounts to the appropriate settlement currencies. Settlement is the process of calculating, determining, reporting and transferring the net financial position of our issuers and acquirers for all transactions that are cleared.

Visa transactions can be authorized, cleared and settled either as dual-message transactions or as single-message transactions. The choice of processing method may vary depending upon the issuer, the type of card or the region in which the transaction takes place.

• In a single-message transaction, the acquirer submits a single electronic message containing all data required for the authorization, clearing and settlement of the transaction. Actual financial settlement occurs at a later time.
• In a dual-message transaction, the acquirer submits an electronic message at the time of purchase containing the information required for an authorization decision and a second message at a later point in time containing additional data required for clearing and settlement.

Authorization

A typical Visa transaction begins when the cardholder presents his or her Visa card to a merchant as payment for goods or services. The transaction information is then transmitted electronically to the issuer for authorization. In certain cases, we may authorize the transaction on behalf of the issuer through a service known as stand-in processing, based on parameters established by the issuer. The following diagram illustrates the processing steps involved in a typical transaction authorized through our network. In a typical Visa transaction, the authorization process by Visa occurs in approximately one second.