Card
Overview
ElasticPay processes card-not-present payments for Visa, Mastercard, and Amex. Card payments process in real time and settle T+1.
What the customer provides
Card number, expiry, CVV, and cardholder name — collected by the hosted payment page or the embedded widget.
What you collect (and what you never touch)
Your integration only ever handles a payment method token (pm_xxx).
The card number and CVV are captured inside an ElasticPay-controlled frame and
tokenised before anything reaches your systems — they never pass through your
page’s DOM or your servers. This is what keeps your PCI obligation at SAQ A.
See Security & PCI Compliance.
Never collect raw card numbers in your own forms or send them to your server.
Processing and settlement
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Authorisation | Real-time — the confirm response tells you the outcome |
| 3D Secure | Applied automatically where required (requires_action status) |
| Settlement | T+1 |
| Minimum amount | 200 cents |
| Currency | AUD |
Saving cards and recurring charges
Cards can be saved for later use with a Setup Intent or by flagging a first purchase to store the method. Saved cards support merchant-initiated recurring charges — ElasticPay handles the card-scheme stored-credential requirements automatically. See Stored Credentials & Recurring Charges.
Refunds and failures
- Refunds — full and partial, via the Refunds API.
- Declines — returned immediately as
failedwith an error code. See Error Codes.
Surcharging
Card payments on Australian accounts are never surcharged, whatever the card
scheme and wherever the card was issued: the Reserve Bank of Australia bans
surcharges on Visa and Mastercard, and American Express requires the same. The
rule follows your account’s country, not the card’s. New Zealand accounts can
surcharge card payments when surcharge_enabled is on and cards are enabled
for surcharging (see
Surcharging by payment method).
Where a surcharge applies, it is the processing fee passed to the payer — there
is no separate surcharge rate to set. An Australian account can still turn on
surcharge_enabled (see Account Settings);
it then applies only to the non-card methods enabled for surcharging.
On a payment intent, surcharge_applied records that a surcharge was
requested, and surcharge_amount is what was actually added — 0 when none
applies. When you don’t set surcharge_applied, it defaults to whether your
account would surcharge the payment. Set it to false to waive the surcharge
on one payment. Setting it to true can’t add a surcharge that your account’s
settings don’t allow.
Testing
Use the test card numbers in sandbox mode to exercise successful payments, declines, and 3D Secure challenges.