Continuous Authority transactions, otherwise known as Recurring Billing, is an industry wide term used to describe a transaction for which a cardholder grants written permission to a Vendor to periodically charge their card for recurring goods or services such as club membership or magazine subscriptions.

While the Protx system is not set up specifically with Recurring Billing or Subscription Payment services, it is possible to process repeat Internet transactions using a Continuous Authority Internet Merchant Number via our Payment Gateway system.

Continuous Authority is for vendors who regularly take payments from shopper's cards (weekly, monthly or yearly). Protx provide a Repeat transaction type option on all Protx accounts but this is for the occasional repeated transaction, not for multiple repeats. The banks will provide a Continuous Authority Internet Merchant number for all vendors who wish to process repeat payments of this nature.

Transactions that are processed online with the banks require a CV2 Value and an Expiry date. But CV2 values cannot be stored and expiry dates can expire, so processing a Repeat transaction has its restrictions.

Continuous Authority transactions do not require a CV2 value or expiry date. The initial transaction, once verified, will be a trusted card and will not need to have the data passed again. If the card expires, as long as the card number has not changed, it can still be processed.

You will need to obtain a Continuous Authority Internet Merchant number from your Acquiring bank and establish their requirements. For Bank contact details click here


Banks Support

At present, Protx are only set up to work with Continuous Authority Internet Merchant Numbers from the following acquiring banks:

            

NB: If you have a Continuous Authority Internet Merchant Number with any other acquirer you will not be able to use this service with Protx at present. We are looking to fully support these remaining banks in the future.


Card Support

Mastercard and Visa ONLY. (SWITCH, Maestro & SOLO cards are not support)


The Continuous Authority Internet Merchant Number your acquirer provides you with will either;

• Allow you to process all your Internet transactions.



• Be used in conjunction with your existing Internet Merchant Number and used solely for your recurring transactions.

NB: Please identify this with your acquiring bank.

You can either have;

• A Continuous Authority Internet Merchant Number for all your transactions.



• A Continuous Authority Internet Merchant Number for recurring transactions only.

In both cases;

• You can use all of the Protx VSP Services.
  (VSP Form, VSP Direct, VSP Server & VSP Terminal)



• You will only need ONE Protx account.



• You just need to inform us of your Continuous Authority Merchant number by emailing mnchanges@protx.com
  
  N.B: Please state what type of Continuous Authority Merchant number you have together with your VSP Vendorname making sure the request comes from a Primary / Billing email address registered on the account.

Our system will know what merchant number to use based on your account set up.

If you have an Ecommerce Merchant Number and a Continuous Authority Merchant Number on your account, our system will process all PAYMENTS, DEFERRED and AUTHENTICATE transactions as Ecommerce. Any REPEAT transaction will be processed as Continuous Authority.

If only have a Continuous Authority Merchant Number, our system will process all your transactions using this merchant number.

NB: The Initial transaction can be 3D Secured and have AVS & CV2 validation. Repeats will not.

VSP Direct Vendors

The VSP Direct system allows you to pass an 'AccountType' field, allowing you to choose what type of transactions you wish to process. You manage the data flow, so you can pass an 'E' for an Ecommerce transaction, an 'M' for a Moto transactions and a 'C' for a C Continuous Authority transaction and we will handle them accordingly.

N.B: Using VSP Direct requires you to capture the card details and pass them to our system, so you will need a secure environment.

If you have a Continuous Authority Internet Merchant Number with one of the acquiring banks that we support and wish to use Protx you will need to do the following;

• If you do not have an account with Protx, you will need to register for one via our online registration form. http://www.protx.com/holding.html



• If you already have an account with Protx and have a new Continuous Authority Internet Merchant Number, please email the Protx Merchant Number change team at mnchanges@protx.com from the registered Billing email address registered on the account, providing your VSP Vendor name.

If you have any further questions please email the support team.