[PostFinance] What is the difference between "online" and "offline" payments?

The Merchant has the choice of 2 processing modalities for his credit card payments:

  • online (immediate): our system forwards the payment request without delay directly to the acquirer.
    The acquirer’s response is immediately available but due to the communication between our system and the acquirer, the process time is slightly longer.
  • offline (deferred processing): our system verifies that the payment data are complete and correct, and then stores the information and processes the payment later on (maximum 4 hours).
    This reduces response time and allows the payments to be input faster.