Authorize.net ARB Credit Card Issues

Question

I can successfully create ARB subscriptions. But as far as I can tell from the documentation, the credit card is not validated until it is charged.

So it is my understanding that I need to use AIM and VOID a charge of 0.01.

$content =
    "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"utf-8\"?>" .
    "<ARBCreateSubscriptionRequest xmlns=\"AnetApi/xml/v1/schema/AnetApiSchema.xsd\">" .
    "<merchantAuthentication>".
    "<name>" . $loginname . "</name>".
    "<transactionKey>" . $transactionkey . "</transactionKey>".
    "</merchantAuthentication>".
    "<refId>" . $refId . "</refId>".
    "<subscription>".
    "<name>" . "Payment" . "</name>".
    "<paymentSchedule>".
    "<interval>".
    "<length>". 1 ."</length>".
    "<unit>". "months" ."</unit>".
    "</interval>".
    "<startDate>" . $today . "</startDate>".
    "<totalOccurrences>". 9999 ."</totalOccurrences>".
    "<trialOccurrences>". 0 . "</trialOccurrences>".
    "</paymentSchedule>".
    "<amount>". $contractorRate ."</amount>".
    "<trialAmount>" . 0.00 . "</trialAmount>".
    "<payment>".
    "<creditCard>".
    "<cardNumber>" . $ccnumber . "</cardNumber>".
    "<expirationDate>" . $ccexpire . "</expirationDate>".
    "</creditCard>".
    "</payment>".
    "<billTo>".
    "<firstName>". $firstname . "</firstName>".
    "<lastName>" . $lastname . "</lastName>".
    "</billTo>".
    "</subscription>".
    "</ARBCreateSubscriptionRequest>";

//send the xml via curl
$response = send_request_via_curl($host,$path,$content);

So before I get a successful response from $response, I'd need to VOID a charge to their credit card.

Am I correct in this understanding? What would be the best way to go about doing so?

Answer 1

To verify the credit card is valid before creating the subscription you need to do an AUTH_ONLY for either $0.00 or $0.01 depending on your processor's requirements. If it is approved, and the amount is $0.01, you should then void that transaction. Then you can go ahead and create your subscription.

There were some rules changes and AUTH_ONLYs for $0.01 and I am not 100% up to speed on them. But from what I understand, Visa and MasterCard wanted to do away with AUTH_ONLYs for any dollar amount. They wanted merchants to use $0.00 instead as that leaves no frozen funds on a user's card and makes the purpose of the AUTH_ONLY clear. Definitely contact the merchant account provider and see what these rules are and what their level of support for $0.00 AUTHs are.