Preauthorize and capture

10 min

To enable card-on-file features such as this one, you must contact Jetpay support directly.

This flow allows you to authorize a saved card without immediately capturing funds.

It is designed for platforms that need to reserve funds and capture them later. For example, rentals, deposits, usage-based billing, or marketplaces confirming fulfillment.

If you want to immediately charge a saved card, see Directly charge a credit cardDirect charge instead.

Jetpay currently only supports capturing the full amount of the preauthorized transaction. Partial capture is coming soon!

Prerequisites

Jetpay API Key

Your company bank account ID where funds will be deposited

Tokenized contact credit cardContact credit card

Before you charge a saved card, the customer must exist as a Contact in Jetpay and have at least one tokenized payment method attached.

If you have not yet created a contact or collected card details, complete the Create a contact and Tokenize a contact credit card guides first. Once a payment method is stored, you can preauthorize it directly.

Flow overview

sequenceDiagram
    autonumber
    participant Platform
    participant Jetpay
    participant CardNetwork as Card Network

    Platform->>Jetpay: POST /contact/{contact_id}/creditCards/{credit_card_id}/preauthorize
    Jetpay->>CardNetwork: Authorize only
    CardNetwork-->>Jetpay: Authorization result
    Jetpay-->>Platform: Debit created (status: preauthorized)

    Platform->>Jetpay: POST /debit/{debit_id}/capture
    Jetpay->>CardNetwork: Capture request
    CardNetwork-->>Jetpay: Capture result
    Jetpay-->>Platform: Debit updated (status: paid)

    Jetpay-->>Platform: Webhook (paid / failed)

Implementation details

Create a preauthorization

Endpoint: POST /contact/{contact_id}/creditCards/{credit_card_id}/preauthorize

curl https://extapi.demo.jetpay.baselinepayments.com/contact/contact_123/creditCards/cc_456/preauthorize \
  -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "amount": 100.50,
    "to_bank_account_id": "<your_bank_account_id>",
    "statement": "Test Statement"
  }'

Handle the response

If the card is successfully preauthorized, a response will be returned with an HTTP status code of 200 and the following response body:

{
  "debit_id": "debit_123",
  "amount": 100.50,
  "statement": "Test Statement",
  "to_bank_account_id": "your_bank_account_id",
  "contact_id": "contact_123",
  "from_credit_card_id": "cc_456",
  "transaction_state": "preauthorized"
}

You must store the returned debit_id so that it can be cross used to for the Capture endpoint next.

Capture the transaction

Endpoint: POST /debit/{debit_id}/capture

curl https://extapi.demo.jetpay.baselinepayments.com/debit/debit_123/capture \
  -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"

Handle the response

If the transaction is successfully captured, a response will be returned with an HTTP status code of 200. The new state of the transaction will be paid.

{
  "identifier": "debit_123",
  "state": "paid"
}

Track status updates via events/webhooks

As the transaction moves through its lifecycle, an Event is created for each state update. The most efficient way to track these updates in your system is to register for webhooks. If you are not yet familiar with our webhooks system, please review the Events and webhooks guide.