About the Credit Card Reference Transaction Payment Type

Aptify supports credit card processing using PayPal reference transactions. Using this approach, an organization can simplify PCI compliance because Aptify does not store credit card numbers in the database. During an initial transaction, Aptify transmits the credit card number to PayPal and receives a PayPal reference transaction number in return.

To enable reference transactions on your system, create one or more Payment Types using the new Credit Card Reference Transaction base type (see Managing Payment Types) and associate them with an active Merchant Account that has the Use Reference Transactions option selected (See Integrating with ePayment Providers for information on enabling integration with a third-party credit card processor and the payment capture process). 

Once enabled, an end user should not notice a functional difference between using a standard credit card payment type and a reference transaction payment type. Aptify then stores this reference transaction, and subsequent transactions can be processed against it for a period of one year, and any subsequent transaction resets the expiration period to one year from that new transaction.

A user should notice no changes in processing reference transaction-based credit card payments from processing standard credit card payments with the exception of a new Reference Transaction Expiration Date field in the Payment Information area. Aptify continues to store and populate the CC Partial field so users have access to the first digit and last four of credit card numbers. From a database perspective, the CCAccountNumber field is still encrypted but for reference transactions, Aptify encrypts a generic string ("Ref Transaction") rather than an actual credit card number.

Note that certain features that hold a card number prior to conducting a transaction (such as a standing order, saved payment method, or quotation order) may require the system to perform a zero dollar authorization (ZDA) to obtain a reference transaction number, in which case PayPal may charge you for that ZDA.