How to handled delayed charges?

This really isn't a Zen-cart question but more of a general web merchant question.

How do people generally handle delayed credit card charges? The products we sell could sometimes take a few weeks to ship (due to custom options, etc.) and we'd like to hold off charging the customer until the shipment is made.

I know we can do just a CC authorization without payment but from what I understand we will be charged a fee if we capture the charge after the authorization expires (which I guess happens in a few days, perhaps at most a week).

So how can we charge the customer's credit card weeks after an order is placed? I don't think storing the customer's CC info is proper (or even legal anymore) so reauthorizing doesn't seem to be an option. I suppose we could email the customer when their order is ready to ship and have them re-submit the order but that doesn't seem very customer friendly.

Is this just something that is not typically done? Should we just go ahead and charge the credit card immediately?

This is a question best asked of your merchant account provider.

Yeah, I just figured I'd try here first since there are likely people here who have dealt with this. I'm not very optimistic about getting satisfactory advice from the merchant service.

The length of time that a "shadow" is placed on the card after "Authorising" the payment but not taking it from the card will depend upon your agreement with your merchant service - so no one here can answer the question for you.

You will need to contact them and ask them.

Vger

Correct. The shadow typically is set to between 3 and 30 days, depending on the merchant agreement, the terms of which may vary depending on your industry as well as their own agreements with the actual banks. Most common is 3-7 days. You may or may not be able to actually negotiate changes to the terms.