When running a small business, it is advised that you offer customers an efficient payment.The main idea is to help increase the level of professionalism and ensure your product and services payment punctually.Keep in mind that as you process the payments, the sensitive credit card data should always be safe. Therefore, you should use a payment authorization form to reduce risk of fraud.
Whenever you are taking a product payment by credit card,but the card isn’t present, there are risks. To avoid those risks, you could just easily ask the buyer to sign a document that gives you permission to charge their card. The document mentioned is called a payment authorization form.
What Is a Payment Authorization Form?
A payment authorization form is also often referred to as a credit card authorization form. It is a document signed by credit cardholder. The form grants permission to charge their credit card for a period of time as written in that document. The form is often used to give businesses authority to charge the cardholder on a recurring basis whether that’s monthly, quarterly, or even sporadically.
Automatic Payment Authorization Form
Child Care Payment Authorization Form
Credit Card Payment Authorization Form
Direct Payment Authorization Form in PDF
Electronic Payment Authorization Form Example
Recurring Payment Authorization Form in Word
Chargeback Abuse
Chargebacks protect consumers from unauthorized transactions. It occurs when a customer disputes a charge and asks the card issuer to reverse it.
Chargebacks can cause issues for businesses in a big amount because the disputed funds are held from the business until the card issuer decides what to do next. Chargebacks are commonly also time consuming for businesses and involve a lot of paperwork.
A credit card authorization form is one way to protect yourself against chargebacks. If you have a signed document from the cardholder that gives you permission to charge their card for services rendered, your chances of winning your case with the card issuer are much more likely and less complicated.
When To Use an Authorization Form
Credit card authorization forms are very useful for transactions, whether those are manually entered card transactions or Card on File transactions. Essentially, the form does two basic things: It mitigates the risk of customers saying they were charged when they shouldn’t have been, and it saves a lot of time.
Card on File allows business owners, with permission from their customers, to securely store payment information with Square. This makes it easier to charge recurring customers online or in person through your POS, Square Invoices, or our eCommerce API. If you regularly bill customers remotely (by keying in card information), you can use Card on File to charge customers in the future without any additional action.
Let’s say you are a restaurant that caters lunch for a local office every other week. If you have an authorization form saved, you know that every time when the office calls for a delivery, you can charge it directly to their card. You don’t have to bother going back and forth asking them on which form of payment they want to use or even have them sign for the charge every time they have an order.
Recurring billing is not the only situation where the authorization form can be useful. You might also use an authorization form to take a deposit for future purchase of goods or services.
The form is useful for when you run any type of business that rents expensive equipment. You can use a payment authorization form to put a hold on a card until the equipment is returned.
Credit Card Authorization Form Components
A credit card authorization form doesn’t have to be complicated to be taken care of. Typically, it contains the following.
- The cardholders credit card information
- Card type
- Name on card
- Card number
- Expiration date
- The merchant’s business information
- Cardholders billing address
- Authorizing of language the merchant to charge the customer’s card on file
- Name and signature of the cardholder
Credit card authorization forms are a best for merchants. Although it’s not legally acquired, you should put some thoughts about using one.
Be sure to keep cardholder data safe by storing completed forms in a secure cabinet or room. Restrict access only to employees who require it to do their duties. Because chargeback windows can vary, we advise storing all signed payment authorization forms for up to two to three months after you stop charging the card on file.
