Payment Capture

Payment capture is the step in a card payment where the merchant confirms that it wants to collect an amount that the card issuer has already authorized, so that the transaction is submitted for clearing and the funds move. Until capture, an approved card payment is only a hold on the cardholder's available balance or credit line; after capture, it becomes a charge that will be settled to the merchant.

Capture sits between payment authorization and settlement in the card lifecycle described in Authorization & Settlement. Merchants can capture immediately ("auth and capture" in one call) or later ("delayed capture"), for example when goods ship. The rules on how long an authorization stays valid, and how much may be captured against it, are set by the card networks such as Visa and Mastercard, and enforced through the merchant's acquirer.

Picture a restaurant that takes your card when you sit down and asks the bank, "Is this card good for about 50?" The bank says yes and sets 50 aside. Nothing has actually been paid yet. When you finish and the final bill comes to 47, the restaurant tells the bank, "Please take 47." That second instruction is the capture.

The first step is a promise; the second step is the actual collection. Most online shops do both straight away, so the customer never notices. Shops that send goods later, hotels and car hire firms often wait, because they do not know the final amount or do not want to take money for an item they might not be able to supply.

When a customer pays, the merchant's payment gateway sends an authorization request through the card network to the issuing bank. An approval returns an authorization code and reserves the amount. To capture, the merchant sends a capture instruction that references that authorization. Processors collect captured transactions, usually into a daily batch, and submit them to the network as clearing records; this is the start of payment clearing. The network calculates what each acquirer and issuer owe, settlement follows, and the acquirer pays the merchant net of the merchant discount rate.

The main capture patterns are:

• Immediate capture. Authorization and capture in one step, typical for digital goods and in-store payments.
• Delayed capture. The merchant authorizes at checkout and captures when the order ships, the common pattern in physical e-commerce.
• Partial capture. The merchant captures less than the authorized amount, for example when one item in an order is out of stock; the remainder should be released.
• Multiple captures. Some acquirers allow several captures against one authorization for split shipments.
• Incremental authorization. Hotels, car rental firms and similar merchants can raise the authorized amount during a stay before the final capture.

An authorization does not last forever. Visa simplified its rules in April 2024 into a single authorization-to-clearing time frame: according to Visa's notices and acquirer bulletins, cardholder-initiated card-not-present transactions generally have up to 10 calendar days (previously 7), while estimated authorizations in sectors such as lodging, cruise lines and vehicle rental can last up to 30 days. Mastercard distinguishes final authorizations, which are expected to be cleared within a short window, from pre-authorizations that can be held for longer. Exact limits vary by transaction type and region and change with network releases, so merchants rely on their acquirer's current guidance.

Capturing late, or capturing more than was authorized, carries risk. The issuer may have released the hold, the cardholder may have spent the money elsewhere, and the issuer can raise a chargeback on authorization grounds. Capturing on an expired authorization can also attract network fees. Where the final amount is higher than authorized beyond a permitted tolerance, the merchant normally needs a new or incremental authorization. If an order is cancelled before capture, the merchant should send an authorization reversal so that the cardholder's funds are freed promptly; this is covered under payment cancellation.

Capture is chiefly a card concept, because cards separate the approval from the movement of money. Bank rails generally do not: an ACH debit or a credit transfer on real-time payment systems is submitted once and either succeeds or is returned. Some digital wallets and buy now, pay later providers copy the card model, offering an authorize-then-capture flow so that merchants can confirm stock first. The cheque world has its own use of the word in remote deposit capture, which means scanning a cheque for deposit, an unrelated idea.

Merchants usually automate capture in their order system, triggering it from a shipping event, and watch for authorizations that are close to expiry. Each capture request should carry an idempotency key so that a network timeout and resend does not capture twice. Captured totals are then matched against acquirer settlement reports during settlement reconciliation. Holding authorizations open for long periods is a frequent cause of customer complaints, because the cardholder sees reduced available funds without a completed purchase, and of disputes when the eventual charge surprises them.

• Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules