A floor limit is the maximum amount of money that can be charged to the cardholder without requiring an authorization.
Usually, the floor limit is set at zero. However, factors such as the nature of a business, cardholder not present transactions (CNP) or cardholder present transactions will determine the floor limit of a merchant’s terminal. Likewise, it applies even in the case of a split sale, which means that the customer makes a payment part in cash and part by card.
Indeed, electronic terminals are nowadays programed with floor limits and in the case the authorization requirement is detected, they will automatically telephone the bank.