Pre-Auth Payments
How payment pre-authorisation works in Bamboo, and how to enable it on your properties and manage it for your customers.
What is Pre-Auth?
Pre-auth (payment pre-authorisation) is an optional security check, available to agencies who have been enabled to use it, that ensures a bidder has the funds available before they place a bid. When enabled on a property, our payment handling system will pre-authorise 10% of the bidder's first bid amount plus the total buyer's fees on the bidder's card via Stripe as a security deposit.
If the bidder goes on to win the auction, we process the pre-authorised funds at auction end. If they do not win, the pre-auth is released.
Pre-auth is only available to agencies who have been enabled to use it. If you don't see the Pre-auth payments? option on the Pricing tab of a property, your organisation isn't set up for pre-auth.
How Pre-Auth Affects Bidder Verification
When pre-auth is enabled on a property, the bidder verification requirement increases from 3 / 3 to 4 / 4 checks. The additional requirement is a successful pre-auth on the bidder's card.
In the Watchers list for a property, you will see each watcher's verification count reflect this — bidders without a valid pre-auth will not be considered fully verified for that property.
Enabling Pre-Auth on a Property
You can choose whether to apply pre-auth on a property-by-property basis.
- Open the property in Online Auctions and edit it.
- Go to the Pricing tab.
- Tick the Pre-auth payments? checkbox.
- Save the property.
Bidders watching or bidding on this property will then be required to complete a successful card pre-auth as part of their verification.
Skipping Pre-Auth for a Specific Customer
In some cases (e.g. trusted frequent buyers, institutional bidders), you may want to exempt a specific customer from the pre-auth requirement.
- Navigate to Customers in the sidebar.
- Open the customer and click Edit.
- Toggle Skip Payment Pre-auth? on.
- Save your changes.
When this is enabled, the customer will not be required to complete a pre-auth on properties where pre-auth is otherwise enabled. Their verification count will fall back to the standard 3 / 3 requirement.
Skipping pre-auth removes a layer of payment verification for that customer. Only enable this for customers you have independently verified and trust.
Summary
| Setting | Location | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-auth payments? | Property → Pricing tab | Requires bidders to complete a card pre-auth on this property |
| Skip Payment Pre-auth? | Customer → Edit | Exempts a specific customer from the pre-auth requirement |