Pre-authorization (also called an “auth-only” or simply “pre-auth”) is a two-step payment process in which the merchant first requests approval from the cardholder’s issuing bank to confirm that sufficient funds or credit are available, and the bank places a temporary hold on that amount. No money changes hands at this stage — the hold simply earmarks the funds, preventing the cardholder from spending them elsewhere. The merchant then has a defined window, typically seven to thirty days depending on the card network, to either capture the payment and complete the transaction or void the authorization and release the hold.
This pattern is essential for businesses where the final charge amount may differ from the initial estimate, or where there is a delay between the commitment to pay and the delivery of goods or services. Hotels, car rental companies, and petrol stations routinely pre-authorise an estimated amount at the start of a booking or fuelling session and capture the actual amount later. E-commerce merchants often pre-authorise at the time of order placement and capture only when the item ships, reducing the risk of charging customers for products that turn out to be out of stock.
Pre-authorization also plays an important role in fraud prevention and payment risk management. Because the hold verifies the card’s validity and the cardholder’s available balance, it provides an early signal that the payment method is legitimate. If subsequent fraud checks or order reviews raise concerns, the merchant can void the pre-authorization without incurring the fees and complications associated with refunding a captured payment. This makes the auth-and-capture model significantly cleaner from both a financial and operational standpoint.
Shuttle Global supports pre-authorization flows across its entire product suite. Platforms using Embedded Payments can initiate pre-authorisations through Shuttle’s unified API and capture or void them later, regardless of which underlying PSP processes the transaction. For Voice Checkout, pre-authorization is particularly valuable in scenarios such as telephone booking for travel or hospitality — the agent can confirm availability and hold funds during the call, then capture once the reservation is finalised. Shuttle’s PSP-neutral architecture ensures that the auth-and-capture lifecycle behaves consistently across processors, sparing platforms from managing the subtle differences in how each PSP handles hold durations, partial captures, and expiration policies.