Blu Voucher is a South African alternative payment method . They provide a payment option for merchants operating in South Africa, allowing customers to pay for goods and services though redeeming prepaid vouchers.

You can use Blue Voucher as a Payment Method for:

Payments

The BR-DGE bluVoucher Payment Instrument can be used to redeem Blu Vouchers. BR-DGE takes the Blu Voucher PIN and sends it to Blu Voucher to redeem.

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Blu Voucher payments are only supported with South African Rand (ZAR). No other currencies are supported.

Partial Voucher Redemptions

BR-DGE only support full voucher redemption. Partial redemptions are not supported. If you attempt a partial redemption by passing an amount less than the full value of the voucher, the payment will be prevented, and a response code, 4804 - Voucher partial redemption not permitted, will be returned.

The outcome of a voucher redemption is either CAPTURED or REJECTED.

Payment API Examples

To create a Blu Voucher payment, you must send a request similar to the following to the POST /v1/payments REST API Endpoint.

{
  "merchantTransactionId": "ff163246-eb94-4763-9a2a-f5d6d48b026e",
  "amount": 0,
  "customerOrderCode": "ABC456",
  "orderDescription": "Taxi fare",
  "channel": "ios",
  "currencyCode": "ZAR",
  "customerPhoneNumber": "+44 1231110000",
  "customerEmail": "[email protected]",
  "paymentInstrument": {
    "type": "bluVoucher",
    "pin": "1234567812345678"
  }
}

You should expect to receive a response similar to the one below, indicating whether the voucher redemption was successful or not.

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For security purposes, the sensitive pin is not returned in the payment response.

{
  "code": "1000",
  "message": "Approved",
  "comcardeCode": {
    "code": "1000",
    "description": "Approved"
  },
  "id": "691ca00b78759f29aa82ec4597b2d512",
  "paymentId": "c2fcf424-d7df-4b8b-aa98-3a60ce990d7c",
  "status": "CAPTURED",
  "timestamp": "2022-01-30T10:10:10Z",
  "reference": "example-customer-order-code",
  "amount": 2000,
  "currencyCode": "ZAR",
  "paymentInstrument": {
    "type": "bluVoucher"
  },
  "psp": {
    "name": "BLUVOUCHER",
    "transactionId": "a83a53a2-dcc8-45be-bf70-2b1e4b719f7c"
  }
}

Verification

The BR-DGE bluVoucher Payment Instrument can be used to verify the status and balance of a Blu Voucher before attempting a payment.

Merchants who wish to verify a voucher's status before redemption can do so via the POST /payment-instrument-verifications endpoint.

The API requires the voucher's PIN, which must be a numeric string between 9 and 16 digits.

Verification API Example

To verify a voucher PIN, send a request similar to the one below to the POST /payment-instrument-verifications endpoint.

{
  "psp": "BLUVOUCHER",
  "verificationDetails": {
    "type": "bluVoucher",
    "pin": "1234567812345678"
  }
}

The response will indicate the voucher's status (e.g., ACTIVE), its unique alphanumeric serial number, and its amount in South African Rand minor units (cents).

{
  "id": "907e304694fbc72b1b53c9e0fc8dc031",
  "verificationId": "81f39986-2ff6-42e2-afec-6ea85b4658c3",
  "psp": "BluVoucher",
  "code": "1004",
  "message": "Request succeeded",
  "verificationResult": {
    "type": "bluVoucher",
    "status": "ACTIVE",
    "serial": "BL01CCBE9EAAE6A5",
    "amount": 2000
  }
}

Unknown Status

In rare cases, where a redemption request times out at the execution phase, BR-DGE may not immediately know the outcome of the payment. In these instances, the payment status will be marked as UNKNOWN.

To determine the outcome, BR-DGE employs our status checking mechanism, periodically querying Blu Voucher to get the status of the voucher redemption.

The outcome of this check with Blu Voucher can result in one of two scenarios:

• The status check response indicates the voucher has been redeemed; The BR-DGE payment status will be updated to CAPTURED.
• The status check response indicates the voucher has not been redeemed; The **BR-DGE ** payment status will be updated to DECLINED or REJECTED. The voucher can likely still be used by the customer.

Onboarding & Support

To enable Blu Voucher on your BR-DGE retail channels, please get in contact with support.