"Unauthorized Payment" error with valid credit card in Live environment

[paypal]

"Unauthorized Payment" error with valid credit card in Live environment

[dgoldman-pdx]

Dave from PayPal/card.io here.

@atisman89 one possibility is that you are running into the current restrictions of credit card payments allowing only U.S. Dollars (currency = "USD") and U.S. Merchant accounts. Would either of those restrictions be relevant in your case?

[atisman89]

Thanks for the comment. We are testing with USD currency and a US-based business account. Is there any special requirement on our PayPal business account to accept the CC payment?

[dgoldman-pdx]

@atisman89 the only requirement I'm aware of is that you need to have a "Pro" account to accept credit card payments.

If you do indeed have a Pro account, then your problem exceeds my personal knowledge! In which case I'll have to refer you to www.paypal.com/mts to talk with someone who can delve more deeply into why your credit card payment is being refused.

Either way, please follow up here -- if there's a bug in our SDK then we'd like to get it fixed quickly for you!

[atisman89]

@dgoldman-ebay is it really true that I need to have a "Pro" account to accept credit card payments through iOS SDK? I have not seen such statement in any public web sites. Looks like it's allowed to accept credit card payments using Standard and Advanced account in general based on this site: https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/paypal-payments-standard

[dgoldman-pdx]

@atisman89 I have been checking into this, and now I'm more confused than ever! :(

My current impression is that a Pro account is NOT needed for a U.S. merchant to accept credit card payments using this SDK. But for a non-U.S. merchant, at the moment a Pro account IS needed. However, that non-U.S. restriction will probably go away sometime in the near future.

As you can tell, things are in flux!

Does this explain your difficulty here? I.e., do you have a non-U.S., non-Pro account?

[atisman89]

@dgoldman-ebay Thank you for looking into this but it does not explain my difficulty since I have a U.S., non-Pro account. I submitted a question to the technical support site you mentioned but have not heard a reply for more than a week...

[atisman89]

I found a log message for this failure which seems to be generated by the SDK:

Request has failed with error:"UNAUTHORIZED_PAYMENT - System error (UNAUTHORIZED_PAYMENT). Please try again later.
PayPal debugId: b09f5fd476058"

Does the PayPal debugId help to identify the cause of failure? Could the SDK elaborate more about the error?

[dgoldman-pdx]

@atisman89 thanks.

Apparently this error means something like "Payee account not setup for Credit Card Payments." (We have put in a request that the message be improved!)

If you check the PayPal developer portal for your app, are credit card payments showing as enabled (i.e., a green check mark)?

[atisman89]

@dgoldman-ebay The PayPal developer portal for my app indicates that the credit card payment is disabled for our account. It says more detailed information about our business account is required to enable it including SSN, EIN, ITIN. But we have already entered all this information through the PayPal account setting and I do not see any indication of missing information when I visit the account setting page. So it's still a mystery why this account is disabled for the credit card payment for the reason of lack of detailed information.

[dgoldman-pdx]

@atisman89 that certainly is frustrating!

Unfortunately, our team doesn't have access to account information, so there's not much we can do to help with this. I'm afraid that Merchant Technical Support is your only recourse here.

I'm going to go ahead and close this issue, since there's not a technical solution available. (And we will try to get that error message improved.)

[atisman89]

We are still suffering from this problem. We are trying to use every single channel to resolve the issue. We have submitted the issue to the suggested Merchant Technical Support site (https://www.paypal.com/mts) twice but have not heard anything for more than a month (and they don't provide any phone support so there's no way but waiting). We have called regular PayPal support to talk to someone, who also placed the issue to the Merchant Technical Support and promised to get back to me via phone within 48 hours timeframe but I have still not heard anything after the timeframe. This is very frustrating support experience for this kind of critical problem. I hope I could talk to someone who have the knowledge on why this is happening and how this problem can be resolved.

[palavilli-godaddy]

@atisman89 - on the developer.paypal.com - for your app where it shows more information is required to enable the credit card payments, do you see a link to initiate the signup flow ? Or did you go through that before, entered all the info and after that you got the message that there is still more information required ?

[atisman89]

@ppalavilli Thank you for your comment. Yes, I saw the link and followed it but it did not start any sign up flow. The link just leads me to the same page (with title "My apps") shown when I clicked the "Application" tab on the main page.

[palavilli-godaddy]

hmm weird that shouldn't have happened. Did you get any email from PayPal saying they couldn't verify your identity or business ? Usually in the offline review process if they need additional information they notify you via email.When that happens, the onboarding flow simply sends you back to the developer portal saying review pending. I wonder if that's what you are getting into.

Anyways can you send me your PayPal account id (email) that you were using ? That would help us figure out what's going on with your account. Please send it to my email [email protected].
thanks.

[amritk]

Hey @ppalavilli Dave said this is possible in Canada if I upgrade to a pro account? I am willing to do this now as I am getting the same error on an app that went live yesterday. Do you think you could direct me to someone who can set this up?

[palavilli-godaddy]

@amritk can you please send me your account email id so we can make sure what's going on?

[update: please contact paypal.com/mts ]

[Romi1]

Hi @atisman89, I am just wondering if you have resolved this problem? I am having exactly the same issue and finding the Paypal customer service impossible to deal with. If you have resolved the issue can you please share it with me. Thanks in advance

[atisman89]

@ppalavilli helped me resolve the issue. I am not sure exactly how this problem was fixed technically but currently I see the status of "Accept Payments" section of my app is set to "Enabled for test and live" in the developer portal. And since the status change, we don't have any problem in making CC payments to the account. It looks like the original error message on that section was a bit misleading since we didn't have to submit additional business information to resolve the issue (to be clear, we have already submitted all the business information specified on the section but were still seeing the error message). If there are more people out there who have the same issue, then I guess PayPal may need to publish this in FAQ or Known Issues and establish some correction process.

[amritk]

I just wanted to say that upgrading to paypal pro fixed the issue in canada. Thanks guys

[Romi1]

Thanks so much guys!! Really appreciate your input! Turns out Paypal Pro is not available in Australia so I have to use other means. Thanks for your feedback.

[kumario]

@ppalavilli I too have submitted the documentation for Live API credentials, and as a US-based, USD, non-pro account, we still can't process transactions exactly as described above. My commits are on bitbucket, but I was wondering if you could look at my PP acct ([email protected]) and help me as you were able to w/ @atisman89.

[nordfogel]

@ppalavilli I run into the same problem which @atisman89 described above. Do I have to send you our PP account id via mail?

[nordfogel]

@ppalavilli & @dgoldman-ebay Thanks for your help: What countries and currencies are supported for credit card payment via the paypal iOS sdk for non-U.S. merchants with and without a PRO account?

Is it possible to accept credit card payments using the iOS sdk for a german merchant accepting USD, EUR, GBP?

[dgoldman-pdx]

@nordfogel here's the list of supported currencies and credit cards: https://developer.paypal.com/webapps/developer/docs/integration/direct/rest_api_payment_country_currency_support/

Right now, credit card payments are supported only for U.S., U.K., and Canada -- and for the last two only with a PRO account.

There are plans to gradually expand the list of eligible countries. You should check the above URL from time to time for updates.

[atisman89]

Hello @ppalavilli and @dgoldman-ebay Thanks to your help, we were able to resolve the "Unauthorized Payment" issue and finally launched our app in the iOS App Store and people start using the app. Although there are some obvious real cases that the credit card payments went through without a problem, on the other hand, it looks like some people are having trouble with the credit card payments with the following error message:

We're Sorry System Error. Please try again later.

I believe this is different than the "Unauthorized Payment" error since the error message does not contain such a phrase. Please see the attached image. What could be the possible causes of this error for only some users? We cannot see the console log on this error since we cannot reproduce the error in our own devices. Any help would be much appreciated.

[dgoldman-pdx]

@atisman89 unfortunately, there are several server error responses that will produce this particular alert. Without access to the console log, there's no way to determine which server error actually occurred, nor why.

In some cases this might simply be a transient server problem, and trying again a few minutes later will succeed.

But it's certainly possible that your users are running into a bug in either our SDK or our server. If there's any possibility that you could identify a user who consistently runs into this problem and who would be willing to give you enough detailed info (including credit card number) for you to try to reproduce the error, that would be very helpful!

[atisman89]

@dgoldman-ebay Thanks for your reply. It's currently difficult for us to get the console log for this error. Could you tell me just a rough range of the cause of this error? For example, could it be a card specific issue (e.g. invalid/expired card number) or could it be a device specific issue (e.g. unsupported device/iOS version)? Thanks.

[dgoldman-pdx]

@atisman89 this message corresponds to several different server responses, but all of them boil down to "Something unexpected occurred on the server." In other words, users should never see this message unless our servers are temporarily down for some reason (which is not supposed to happen!).

My best guess is that there is a bug in either our server code or our SDK code, and sometimes your users are managing to trigger this bug. This should not happen in response to typical anticipated situations such as invalid/expired cards or unsupported device/iOS version.

If you and your users can identify a reproducible scenario, then we should be able to track down the cause. Otherwise, I can't think of a way to solve this problem. Sorry!

[atisman89]

@dgoldman-ebay Thanks for the detailed information, which was very helpful to understand the scope of this error. We will provide you with more information once we were able to reproduce the issue on our side or capture any patterns. BTW, one suggestion for the SDK is to provide some error code (just a number should be fine) that could identify the source of the error without looking at the console log. Other than that the SDK works great. Thanks.

[manising]

I have been receiving the problem in canada... Everything works good in sandbox environment but "Unauthorized Payment" error in Live ..

[dgoldman-pdx]

@manising as per some of the above comments, and the information here, could you check whether your merchant account is a PRO account? Also, not all credit cards are supported for a Canadian account; for example, the last time I checked, American Express was not supported for Canadian accounts.

[Formgram]

Anyone experienced a problem where the credit card payments went to the paypal account associated with the developer clientID?

This is a slight variation of the errors this team has experienced in this thread.

If the user/payer logs in with a paypal username/password, then they are able to select the receiver paypal account and pay correctly.
If the user selects to pay with a credit card, then the payment always goes to the developer's PayPal account, in this case it's me instead of the intended receiver of the payment.

I'm using sdk version 1.3.6
Even though I've verified the receiver paypal email address is correct, the payment still goes to my paypal, not the receiver paypal email.

This is issue #86
Thanks in advance.

[dgoldman-pdx]

@Formgram please see both #30 and my answer to you in #86

[fvisticot]

can your please confirm that credit card payments is not possible in France even with pro account ?
Any roadmap to enable this feature ?

[dgoldman-pdx]

@fvisticot at this time France is not among the supported countries for credit card payment.

The list of supported countries is here.

There are plans to expand the list over the coming months. But there has not yet been any official announcement of a specific roadmap.

[dgoldman-pdx]

Thanks, @wpspamhammer, for your detailed report!

[antypang]

@wpspamhammer, thanks for your explanation，very helpful. It seems card payment nothing to do with us now.

[ppmtscory]

@wpspamhammer can you let me know your ticket number that you had with MTS? I'd be curious to see the issue and how it was resolved by the addition of PayPal Here. Adding PayPal Here to an account shouldn't have anything to do with processing direct credit cards with the mSDK.

[antypang]

@wpspamhammer This is an effective solution, but this in our company which deal with some difficulties, because it involves finances. Btw, we use our credit card web receive payments in various regions are possible, now that the IOS client does not work, it is estimated that the interface is associated with the PP braintree.Anyway, thank you very much.

[ppmtscory]

@wpspamhammer thanks for checking. I was going to use it as a training opportunity but I can send just a general note so that everyone is on the same page. That page being that PPH enablement is not needed to do DCC with mSDK in supported countries. If you happen to stumble across an old email with the ticket feel free to let me know. Have a great day!

[ppmtscory]

@wpspamhammer while adding that product may work as a workaround for allowing DCC (due to the internal naming of the product), it is definitely not the correct way. Also, since that's not correct, it's possible you may have unintended issues in the future if something should change with the internal product naming. I'd love to know your new account where you went through this so that I can take a look and also talk with the agent that helped.

--- forwarded from my deleted account ---

For anyone else that runs into this unfortunate "Unauthorized payment" problem, and does not see the appropriate permission in the developer site enabled, I got it enabled, and below I explain how.

1. If you are INSIDE the U.S. you need approval for "PayPal Here" (that's the literal name)
2. If you are INSIDE U.K. you need to have "PayPal Payments Pro"
3. If you are in neither the U.S. or U.K., you don't get the "Direct credit cards" permission.

The reason you need to be approved for "PayPal Here" in the U.S. (or "Payments Pro" elsewhere) to accept direct card payments via the REST API is because that's how the API captures payments.

"PayPal Here" is a the service for U.S. sellers that lets them swipe credit cards with their smartphones using a small triangular card reader that PayPal mails to them.

The reason PayPal requires "Paypal Here" instead of "Payments Pro" for U.S. account holders is because the small card reader uses the same REST API developers do to capture payments.

The Payments Pro application process can be daunting because of the risk PayPal takes, and if mobile readers required that process, it could slow adoption of these devices significantly.

So, "PayPal Here" sits on a card capture middleground between "Standard Payments" and "Payments Pro" that takes away the "Pro" application process while limiting PayPal's risk simultaneously.

So, when you click the "Enable live transactions" link for the "Direct credit cards" API permission, and are sent to a page asking to verify your business information, there is more than meets the eye.

In reality, it's a "PayPal Here" application for U.S. account holders, and a "Payments Pro" application for non U.S. account holders. The merchant team then looks it over, and approves or denies it.

This application page has bugs, like not sending the application to the merchant team, or redirecting you to the homepage with no reason. This is frustrating, because non tech staff doesn't understand.

After contacting merchant technical support at http://www.paypal.com/mts and many exchanges to identify the core problem, they turned on "PayPal Here" for me and the REST API permission now works.

I hope someone else who is going through this frustrating process can get to the "other side" much quicker, without as much trouble and time.

4/17/15 update: it seems Canada is no longer on the list of supported countries for direct credit card payments, so I've removed it.

4/28/15 It's still possible to use PayPal card payments if you're in other countries, albeit with help; you can partner with a U.S. "host" business who has incorporated and made a PayPal account for you.

PayPal provides a facility to add additional users to accounts and it's perfectly legal to add you, in another country, so long as the host complies with the corporate laws and formalities in the U.S.

I called PayPal and asked if this was okay and they said it's legitimate so long as the laws and terms are followed.

[deepaliVats]

hi
Whenever i have test it on sendbox its working properly.
I have to face this error with credit card payment on live :

{"name":"UNAUTHORIZED_PAYMENT","message":"Unauthorized payment.","information_link":"https://developer.paypal.com/webapps/developer/docs/api/#UNAUTHORIZED_PAYMENT","debug_id":"4bc820e1ef4f"}

To resolve it i haveto click on account eligibility.
but i dont know how to enable debit card.it show me

Note: Direct credit card processing is not available for you when using REST APIs. Your live credentials are inoperable for direct credit card processing for your country but your test credentials are enabled for sandbox testing.

enable as it is on live.
what can i do to resolve that issue please quick response.

[bluk]

@deepaliVats Please contact PayPal Merchant Technical Support for issues with your account.

@deepaliVats See my message above. If you are outside the U.S. and U.K., you can't use the REST API to capture card payments.

[deepaliVats]

Thanks for the reply bluk and vbresults.
yes i have to call paypal and they said that direct credit card not possible for rather than uk and us.

[santiagobenini]

@dgoldman-ebay can you tell if it's possible to accept payments mainly from foreigners cards with a US company account? trough PayPal of course. It has to be a Pro account? we must apply to it?

[bluk]

@santiagobenini Please contact PayPal support for these types of questions. Thanks.