Credit Card Folio Postings for Offline Charges or Payments (when you are Unable to authorize)

There are times when you may not be able to get a successful authorization, purchase, or credit (negative 'apply payment') from a credit card when using the MyCard system embedded into MyPMS. or, if you are using 'Auth at Checkin', and you receive an "Unable to Check In : Unable to authorize the credit card. Please check information and try again", you will need to either:

1) Use a different guarantee or payment method than the credit card currently stored in the Booking Data screen, as BookingCenter staff will not be able to assist if the MyCard gateway is denying the auth/transaction. See: "What's the difference between Authorize at Checkin and Authorize manually?" at: https://support.bookingcenter.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/367

for more information on the MyCard authorization process and how you can avoid authorizing at checkin. Simply changing the "Guarantee by:" on the Booking Data screen to cash or check can allow the checkin to occur.


2) Contact your merchant account provider via their 'Voice Authorization' phone lines and have the credit done directly through them. Only by dealing directly with your credit card merchant processor can you get any information as to 'why' a transaction is being declined. There is a phone number associated with each merchant account to be called when the Point of Sales terminal (which is what our MyCard gateway is) cannot get an authorization, purchase, or credit. BookingCenter staff will NOT KNOW this number, as each one is different. However, if you have no idea who to contact, then you can call the Vital/TSYS help line at: 800-552-8227 and ask them to assist you. You will need to tell them your 'V Number', which is the 7 digit number of your account also commonly known as the 'Terminal ID'. With this number, and a security check of your address, phone, etc, this HelpDesk can often assist you with a voice authorization, or at least get you in touch with your merchant account provider to get the authorization.

Once you have the proper authorization for a purchase or credit and need to 'Apply Payment' to a folio, you need to choose the correct 'Receipt Type'. If you attempt to use the credit card itself, you will continue to get the error you had originally, so choose a different, non-credit card Receipt Type. We usually recommend using either the 'Write Off' or the 'Balance Transferred' that is usually available to each of our properties. However, you can choose whatever option you desire by simply offering a 'Receipt Type' available for your staff to use in these situations. Any Manager level access can access 'Setup | Parameters |Receipt Types' and add a new option that will appear as a 'Payment' option that best records these 'offline' payments onto your folio.

When making a new Receipt Type, make sure you have the 'Live' flag turned to ON and credit card to NO. If you ever wish to disable the Receipt Type, simply choose Live to NO and it will no longer appear as an option for payments on your folio.

More situations for declined authorizations are discussed in the HelpDesk article at: https://support.bookingcenter.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/303