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Credit

Credits are payment refunds from a merchant to the cardholder after a cardholder pays for a product or service and that payment is captured by the merchant. When a credit request is successful, the issuer transfers funds from the merchant bank (acquirer) account to the customer's account. It typically takes 2 to 4 days for the acquirer to transfer funds from your merchant account.

There are two types of credits: a follow-on credit
that is linked to an original capture or sale, and a stand-alone credit
that is not linked to an original capture or sale.

Follow-on Credit

Follow-on credits, also known as refunds
,

use the capture request ID to link the refund to the original transaction.

This request ID is returned during the capture request (also known as a settlement
) and is used in all subsequent refunds associated with the original capture.

The request ID links the transaction to the customer’s billing and account information, so you are not required to include those fields in the

follow-on credit

request.

When you combine a request for a

follow-on credit

with a request for another service, such as the tax calculation service, you must provide the customer’s billing and account information.

Unless otherwise specified,

follow-on credits

must be requested within 180 days of a settlement. You can request multiple follow-on

credits

against a single capture or sale transaction as long as the total amount does not exceed the original purchase amount. To perform multiple follow-on

credits

, use the same request ID in each request.

Stand-Alone Credits

Stand-alone credits are not connected to an original transaction. Stand-alone credits do not have a time restriction, and they can be used to issue refunds more than 180 days after a transaction settlement.

Refund and Credit Workflow

This workflow applies to follow-on credits, also known as refunds, and stand-alone credits. It begins when you send a request for a refund or credit.

Refunds and credits do not happen in real time. All of the credit requests for a day are typically placed in a file and sent to the processor as a single batch
transaction. In most cases, the batch transaction is settled overnight.

The merchant sends the refund or credit request to Cybersource.

For online refunds and credits, Cybersource validates the order information then sends the request to the payment processor.

For offline refunds and credits, Cybersource stores the request in a batch file and sends the batch file to the payment processor after midnight.

The processor validates the request and forwards it to the acquiring bank.

The acquiring bank transfers funds to the issuing bank.

Not all processors support stand-alone credits.