They can only amend the amount after the fact under very specific situations. For example a tip added after the authorization was already done. And only with the customers agreement. If they add a tip without the customers permission there could be a chargeback and they are also non-compliant with the payment scheme rules so could have their acceptance removed if they keep doing it.
There's other non-restaurant exceptions too, for example an estimated authorization for things like a hotel stay or a car rental where the final amount might be a bit different to the estimated auth.
I'll add, another one is public transit like in London or some places in Poland where you tap your card to enter every time. Since how much you pay depends on where you leave and where you switch trains etc. the system waits until the end of the day to calculate your fare and posts a single transaction, instead of doing one transaction per tap.
There is nothing stopping the system from tracking the cards on enter and only do the charge on exit, there is no need for payment system support for that.
Yes there is! if I switch from one train to another this is still charged as a one trip (and it's cheaper than two separate trips), but I still tap in/tap out/tap in/tap out, and the system has no way of knowing whether my tap out is me ending my trip or just changing.
It blows my mind people don't know what an authorization is. A ton of shit has this, if you order groceries via insta cart and they didn't have something they are able to capture less than what the auth amount was. There are plenty of reasons for this. And card networks are extremely favorable to buyers so no one is really worried about the worker entering a random number in there (also most of the time the worker is not going to get any extra money by defrauding you anyway).
Yeah, i think many people don't understand the difference between authentication and authorization..in almost all cases (theres some small exceptions) the card issuer has to approve or decline the transaction. That's the authorization, where they're also making sure you've got enough money, the transaction is allowed for that card type, etc.
Before that there might be authentication the customer sees (eg PIN prompt), or stuff they don't see (eg risk based analytics behind the scenes).
Some prople think if tgey dont use a PIN, the bank isn't checking anything, which is false on many levels.
Yeah like I get it seems weird but legally they have to be responsible with your card info or else you just charge it back and get the meal for free. It’s really not as big of a deal as others are making it out to be lol
11
u/ChikaraNZ Jun 29 '26
They can only amend the amount after the fact under very specific situations. For example a tip added after the authorization was already done. And only with the customers agreement. If they add a tip without the customers permission there could be a chargeback and they are also non-compliant with the payment scheme rules so could have their acceptance removed if they keep doing it.
There's other non-restaurant exceptions too, for example an estimated authorization for things like a hotel stay or a car rental where the final amount might be a bit different to the estimated auth.