Referrals

A transaction may be referred for voice authorisation if an extra security check is required by the acquirer. The terminal will display or print instructions to call the acquirer. If a telephone number is not shown please use the standard voice authorisation number as supplied by that acquirer.

Once you have dialled or made a note of the telephone number press the green key to continue.

Please be ready to quote your merchant number, the full card number and any referral message that was displayed (such as REFERRAL B or CODE 10 REFER). The authorisation centre may need to speak to the customer.

Note: If requested to do so by the authorisation centre operator, you may remove the card from your terminal after a referral request in order to do further visual checks on the card; at all other times, you should only remove the card when prompted to do so by your terminal.

If the transaction is authorised by the authorisation centre, your terminal will prompt you to enter both your supervisor password and the authorisation code. You should take care entering the authorisation code to avoid unnecessary chargebacks from your acquirer.

Your terminal will also refer transactions if it is unable to contact the acquirer. This can happen during exceptionally busy periods when the acquirer’s host system cannot answer the authorisation request.

Note: If you experience a high volume of referrals there may be a problem with your connection. This will be indicated by the diagnostic (DIAG) codes printed on the receipt. Refer to the section entitled Diagnostic Codes for more details.

FRAUD ALERT: Your acquirer will never contact you via telephone call asking you to use a temporary authorisation centre telephone number.