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Delayed capture payments

Delayed capture payments are widely used nowadays by all sorts of vendors as the delayed capture feature provides a number of benefits. For example, delayed capture payments allow you to:

  • Prevent fraud by giving you enough time to verify a customer’s credentials before delivering a product or service.
  • Charge customers after delivering them products or services.
  • Reduce the number of chargebacks and refunds in case the transaction ends up canceled.

How it works​

All payments consist of two key processes: authorization (when the bank verifies if the needed amount is available and places a hold on this amount) and capture (when the bank clears the payment and debits it).

In case of regular payments, these two processes happen almost at the same time and are not perceived by end users.

In case of delayed capture payments, however, you authorize the card, but wait to capture the funds. So, the funds are kept blocked on the user's card till your instruction to debit them.

How to enable delayed capture payments​

If you would like to perform payments with delayed capture, please contact your Smart Glocal manager on the matter.

How long the hold period is​

By default, the money is held for 5 days. If you do not debit or unblock it before the end of this period, the money will get unblocked automatically.

If you need the money to be debited rather than unblocked after the hold period end or the money to be held for a different period, please contact your manager.

How to make a delayed capture payment​

Below you will find two ways of making a delayed capture payment. If you do not have PCI DSS, choose the widget payment option.


To create a delayed capture payment, complete the following steps:

  1. Create a payment session sending a session/create request.

    Alternatively, you can use the session-init-payment method. In this case, specify all the payment parameters right away and skip the next step.

  2. Send a session/start/payment request to start the payment.

  3. Wait for a ready_to_confirm webhook, which means that Smart Glocal is ready to perform the payment and is waiting for your confirmation.

  4. Send a session/confirm request to confirm the operation or a session/cancel request to cancel the payment.

  5. If you receive an action_required webhook, it means that you need to take an additional action to perform the payment. For instance, the user might need to go through 3D Secure. Redirect the user for 3D Secure authentication using the link from the webhook.

  6. Wait for a ready_to_capture webhook from Smart Glocal. It means that a hold has been successfully placed on the amount. You can capture the amount immediately or later.

  7. When the time is ready, capture the amount put on hold (session/capture) or decline the payment (session/cancel) unblocking the amount.

  8. Wait for a payment_finished webhook containing the result of the payment. If the status is succeeded, the payment was successful. To learn more about the payment statuses, click here.

Sequence diagram of delayed capture payments with PCI DSS​

DelayedCapturePCIDSS