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Voice Referral & Voice Authorization When Processing

Timothy Hughes
  • Updated
  1. Shift4 Payments
  2. Self Help Product Categories
  3. Lighthouse Transaction Manager (LTM)
  4. Auditing Transactions

Description: A Voice Referral is a response from the property's processor or the cardholder's issuing bank to an authorization attempt. This indicates that the card could not be approved online and they are requesting that the merchant call for manual approval over the phone. Learn more about what a voice referral or voice authorization is and how to process them below. 

Voice Referral / Authorization Situations

Voice Referrals and Voice Authorizations can occur to a single card, all cards of a particular brand, or any attempted card depending on the issue being experienced. Below are the most common requests based on the following situations: 

  • Cardholder's security settings at the issuing bank typically only occur on a single card
  • Card issuing bank wanting to validate the transaction over the phone for security purposes typically occurs on a single card
  • Improper setup of your processing account typically occurs on all attempted transactions of a certain brand or issuer
  • Property lost internet connection to Shift4 Payment Data Center typically occurs on all attempted transactions

Processing a Voice Authorization 

When a voice referral is received, the merchant can choose to ask the cardholder for another form of payment or call for the voice authorization center details that are prompted on the processing interface or on the Lighthouse Transaction Manager (LTM) screen. Upon receiving the prompt for voice referral, the merchant will be provided a number to call, Merchant ID, and a field in which to enter an authorization code.

The merchant may receive a screen similar to the following:

  
mceclip1.png
 

From this point, the merchant would reach out for the needed information. Once the merchant contacts the voice authorization center, they would need to provide their Merchant ID & full card information to them in order to get a response, which would indicate if the card was declined or approved.

The merchant should receive a response that indicates if the card was declined or approved: 

  • If approved: The merchant should be provided with an authorization code that can be entered into the field to complete the transaction.
  • If declined: The merchant should seek another form of payment from the cardholder.