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Blind Credits

Updated

Overview

A Blind Credit is a transaction that 'gives money' to the specified credit card or ACH account. A Blind Credit is not tied to a previous transaction. Typically, a merchant would 'refund' a customer, and a previous transaction is tied to that refund. However, a blind credit offers no history, and cannot be 'taken back'.

Prerequisites

The merchant's user will need the 'Virtual Terminal Access' permission and within that permission, they will need to have the 'Create New Credits' option enabled. 

Navigating to the Virtual Terminal 'Credits' Page

In the Merchant Portal, on the left side panel → click on Credit Cards → Credit.

Please see How to Process a "Blind" Credit. 

Note - the transaction type 'Credit' is only visible when logging in directly as the merchant via the Merchant Portal. Partners "masquerading"/logging in as the merchant from the Partner Portal will not be able to access/see the 'Credits' link in the Virtual Terminal.

Risks Associated with Blind Credits

Blind Credits invites risk to your Merchant's account that has this feature enabled. A Credit is a transaction that will return funds to a customer and it is not associated ("tied") to a previous sale or authorization transaction. Furthermore, if a rogue employee has access to a Merchant account with that access, they could load up 'gift cards' with no way of 'refunding' the 'given' money back. It is important to understand this risk when allowing a merchant the ability to process Blind Credits.

Credit transactions are risk-related and merchants must go through a risk review before this is turned on for them. Credits are essentially a “reverse” sale – meaning the card or bank account holder will receive funds from the Merchant. The Merchant will be debited for that amount rather than funded.

The Gateway will not be responsible for any misuse related to Blind Credits.

How to Enable Blind Credits

You may enable blind credits for your merchant by:

  1. Log into your Partner Portal
  2. Click on "List Accounts"
  3. Click on the merchant's business name that you wish to add Blind Credits for
  4. Click on the "Edit" button under "Advanced Merchant Features"
  5. Click on either "Allow merchant to issue 'blind' Credit Card credits" or "Allow merchant to issue 'blind' Electronic Check credits" depending on what you need.*
  6. Click "Save" at the bottom

Once this has been completed, we will reach out to you (the Partner), to receive a verbal authorization on enabling blind credit.

*If your Partner Portal does not have the option to enable blind credits under "Advanced Merchant Features", please reach out to our Support team to enable this feature. 

What can't I do once I have Enabled Blind Credits for my Merchant?

Once Blind Credits is enabled on a merchant account, you will not be able to do the following:

  • Change the merchant's email address
  • Enable blind credits from the merchant account within the User Settings
  • Access the merchant's "Security Keys"
  • See/Access the 'Credits' Virtual Terminal section