Transaction Verification (Verify)

A transaction verification, often called a Verify transaction or a zero-dollar authorization, is a transaction type that validates a payment card's authenticity and confirms it is in good standing without actually authorizing or capturing any payment. It confirms that the card number is valid, the card account is open, and the cardholder's bank is reachable, all without placing a hold on the cardholder's funds.

Verify transactions are used in several important scenarios. Subscription businesses use them when a customer adds a new payment method, running a verify confirms the card is valid before the first billing cycle arrives, avoiding a failed charge on the first subscription payment. Marketplaces use them to validate seller payment methods at onboarding before any payouts are initiated. Platforms use them to pre-validate customer cards during account creation, surfacing invalid or declined cards before the first transaction is needed.

The mechanics of a verify transaction vary slightly across card networks. Visa supports a zero-dollar authorization for card verification. Mastercard's equivalent is a small-amount authorization ($0 or $1 in some implementations) that is immediately voided. Different gateways implement verify capabilities differently, some use the card network's specific zero-dollar authorization message; others use a small authorization and immediate void. The result for the cardholder should be the same: no visible charge or hold on their account.

In Spreedly's platform, the Verify transaction type is a first-class operation in the Payment Vault / Universal Vault workflow, it can be run against stored payment method tokens to confirm ongoing card validity, supporting proactive card health checking without waiting for a transaction to fail.