Discover, like Visa requires merchants to send Purchase Return Authorization (PRA) messages for refund transactions.
Below are best practices as suggested by Discover:
- The minimum mandatory data requirements for supporting the authorization request for refund transactions are; the primary account number (PAN) and expiration date. The best practice to have the card presented again to confirm the information is up to date.
- Merchants that participate in Visa Account Updater (VAU) should include accounts to be refunded in their VAU inquiry batch file.
- The refund transaction should be preformed in the same POS mode as the original transaction. If the transaction must be through a different method, the record of the first transaction should no longer be retained.
- No mention should be made of the original payment method data in the PRA message to avoid misrepresentation of the original data.
- A response code of either 00 (approval) or 85 (no reason to decline) must be actioned as an approval response.
- A merchant may process the refund onto a different (alternate) Visa account under the following circumstances: T
- The original account is no longer available or valid (e.g., the original card has been replaced due to expiration or being reported lost or stolen, or was a Visa prepaid card that has since been discarded).
- The authorization request for the refund transaction was declined by the issuer