The charge description is a field that we provide to the acquiring bank during a transaction. It is a basic description of the transaction that is shown on the customer’s bank statement.
This functionality is supported for merchants with a Trust Payments acquiring account. If you are using a different acquiring bank, you will need to contact our Support Team to check this feature is supported before proceeding.
This page explains how to include a charge description in your requests.
Process overview
There are two methods that can be used to include chargedescription in requests submitted to the acquiring bank:
-
By assigning a default charge description to your account:
Using this method, the charge description is automatically included in transactions processed on your account, with no additional configuration required. To configure your account to use this method, contact our Support Team, requesting to configure a default charge description. -
By manually including a charge description in your requests:
Using this method allows you to specify a different charge description on a request-by-request basis.
Submitting charge description in a request
The chargedescription field can be included in the POST to Payment Pages, as shown in the following example:
It is imperative that the chargedescription field is also included in the string used to generate your request site security hash. Failure to do so will result in the customer being shown an “Invalid details” error message.
<form method="POST" action="<DOMAIN>/process/payments/choice">
<input type="hidden" name="sitereference" value="test_site12345">
<input type="hidden" name="currencyiso3a" value="USD">
<input type="hidden" name="mainamount" value="100.00">
<input type="hidden" name="version" value="2">
<input type="hidden" name="stprofile" value="default">
<input type="hidden" name="chargedescription" value="TEST DESCRIPTOR">
<input type="submit" value="Pay">
</form>
Replace <DOMAIN> with a supported domain. Click here for a full list.
You will need to update the payload submitted within your JWT to include the additional field chargedescription, as shown below. Submitting the charge description in this way will always override any value stored on your account or inherited from a parent.
You can also include the chargedescription when submitting a request through our Webservices API. We’ve also provided examples of this in the other tabs below:
{
"payload":{
"accounttypedescription":"ECOM",
"baseamount":"1050",
"currencyiso3a":"GBP",
"sitereference":"test_site12345",
"requesttypedescriptions":["THREEDQUERY","AUTH"],
"chargedescription":"TEST DESCRIPTOR"
},
"iat":1559033849,
"iss":"jwt.user"
}
{
"payload":{
"accounttypedescription":"ECOM",
"baseamount":"1050",
"currencyiso3a":"GBP",
"sitereference":"test_site12345",
"termurl":"https:\/\/payments.securetrading.net\/process\/payments\/mobilesdklistener",
"requesttypedescriptions":["THREEDQUERY","AUTH"],
"chargedescription":"TEST DESCRIPTOR"
},
"iat":1559033849,
"iss":"jwt.user"
}
{
"alias":"webservices@example.com",
"version":"1.00",
"request":[{
"currencyiso3a":"GBP",
"requesttypedescriptions":["AUTH"],
"sitereference":"test_site12345",
"baseamount":"1050",
"orderreference":"My_Order_123",
"accounttypedescription":"ECOM",
"chargedescription":"TEST DESCRIPTOR",
"pan":"4111111111111111",
"expirydate":"12/2020",
"securitycode":"123"
}]
}
<requestblock version="3.67">
<alias>webservices@example.com</alias>
<request type="AUTH">
<merchant>
<orderreference>My_Order_123</orderreference>
<chargedescription>TEST DESCRIPTOR</chargedescription>
</merchant>
<billing>
<payment>
<expirydate>12/2020</expirydate>
<pan>4111111111111111</pan>
<securitycode>123</securitycode>
</payment>
<amount currencycode="GBP">1050</amount>
</billing>
<operation>
<sitereference>test_site12345</sitereference>
<accounttypedescription>ECOM</accounttypedescription>
</operation>
</request>
</requestblock>
Field specification
| Field | Format | Description | |
| chargedescription XPath: /merchant/chargedescription |
Alphanumeric including spaces and special characters (25)
Recommended length 25 characters or less (exact length dependent on acquiring bank). Failure to adhere to this requirement may result in the text being truncated in the transaction. |
The charge description is a field that we provide to the acquiring bank during a transaction. It is a basic description of the transaction that is shown on the customer’s bank statement. The charge description is returned in the response JWT if it has been sent to the acquiring bank. |
Additional notes
Supported request types
The charge description fields can be submitted in the following requests using our Webservices API:
- ACCOUNTCHECK
- AUTH
- ORDER
- ORDERDETAILS
- REFUND
- RISKDEC
- THREEDQUERY
Click here for a full list of request types.
Inheriting from parent requests
If you do not submit the chargedescription in a request, and a parent transaction reference is specified, the chargedescription is inherited from said parent, unless the parent request type is AUTH or REFUND.
