"Referral" Authorization (Declined) ?

[olimits7]

Hi,

Has anyone ever received a "referral" response from their merchant account provider after authorizing a transaction? If you have what does this mean?

It's weird, when I tried to authorize this customer's order I received a "declined" response and the reason was due to "referral".

This is my first time seeing this, so I don't know why this transaction got "declined".

Thank you,

olimits7

[bwnbwn]

not sure but it sounds like the card owner called the CC company and requested the card be canceled or this authorization be canceled.

[ytswy]

When using a physical PDQ machine we occasionally get a referral response. The machine says: Referral - call [telephone number] for authorisation.

I then call this number, get asked some details of the transaction (varies; sometimes just card details and amount, sometimes type of goods and full shipping address as well).

This may result in an immediate authorise or decline decision, or sometime they put me on hold - I believe to call the issuing bank, who will in some cases call the card holder themselves.

If an authorisation is given then you tell the PDQ machine this, and type in the code given over the phone. If not you tell it that it has been declined.

[olimits7]

Thanks for the replies...

Yes, that's what I thought I needed to do; call a phone number and do a voice authorization or something like that.

The thing is I didn't receive a phone number to call when I got that "Referral" response; so I don't know who I need to contact to get this authorization approved.

I understand that customers want to be protected, but this is a pain for the merchants...of well can't do anything about this.

I'll try to contact my merchant account rep to see what I need to do to get this transaction approved.

Thank you,

olimits7