Test payments before you go live
Try the whole booking form without taking anybody’s money, and every test card and what it does.
Before a single customer pays, you want to see the whole thing work: the card field, the confirmation screen, the email. Test mode lets you do exactly that. You book through your own form, type in a pretend card, and Booked behaves as if real money moved when none did.
What test mode does
With test payments on, the booking form still asks for a card and the booking is still marked Deposit paid or Paid in full, but the charge is made on a test account rather than your real one, so no money moves and nothing reaches your balance or your bank. Everything else is real: the confirmation email goes out, the appointment lands in the diary, and reminders follow as usual.
On Booked Payments a test charge goes to Booked’s own test account rather than yours, because the test and live sides are kept apart. So a successful test tells you your booking form takes cards properly. Your first real payout is what proves the money reaches your bank.
Before you test
- Choose how you take payments first. The Test payments card only appears on Payments once you have turned on Booked Payments or chosen a provider of your own.
- Booked Payments must be verified. Until your details have been checked there is no card step at all, test mode or not. See Set up Booked Payments.
- The service must ask for money. A card step only appears when a deposit or the full price is due, so set one up first. See Deposits and paying in full.
Turn it on
- Open PaymentsChoose Payments under System in the sidebar and find the Test payments card.
- Switch on "Take test payments instead of real ones"The pill on the card turns to Testing, and a list of cards to try appears underneath.
- Book through your own formOpen your booking page as a customer would, pick a service and a time, and pay with one of the cards below. Use an email address you can read, so the confirmation lands with you.
- Switch it off when you are doneReal payments resume the moment the switch is off. The bookings you made while testing stay in your diary; see "Afterwards" below.
Try the whole booking form, card field, confirmation and emails included, without taking anybody’s money.
4242 4242 4242 4242Pays straight away4000 0025 0000 3155Asks the customer to confirm in a pop-up4000 0000 0000 0002Declined, no reason given4000 0000 0000 9995Declined, not enough money4000 0000 0000 0127Declined, wrong security code4000 0000 0000 0069Declined, card expired4000 0000 0000 0341Saves on file, then fails when charged later4000 0000 0000 0259Pays, then the bank disputes it, to rehearse a chargeback
The Test payments card on the Payments screen, switched on.
- 1Testing — the pill reads Real payments while the switch is off. Test mode under At a glance says the same.
- 2Take test payments instead of real ones — flips straight away; there is nothing else to save. With your own Stripe connected the note underneath reads "A test charge goes to Booked’s own test account rather than your Stripe account, so it proves the form works, not the payout."
- 3Cards to try — the short list, shown on Booked Payments and your own Stripe while testing. The link opens this article.
While test mode is on, a real customer who books is not charged. Turn it off as soon as you have seen what you needed to.
The details that go with any test card
Every card below takes the same made-up details. None of them are checked, so anything sensible works.
- Expiry: any month and year in the future, for example
12/34. - Security code: any three digits, or any four for an American Express number.
- Postcode: any postcode at all.
- Name and email: whatever you like. Use your own email to receive the confirmation.
Cards that pay successfully
These go through first time. Use them to see the confirmation, the email, and the booking as it lands in the diary.
| Card number | Kind | What happens |
|---|---|---|
4242 4242 4242 4242 | Visa | Pays straight away. The one to reach for first. |
4000 0566 5566 5556 | Visa debit | Pays straight away, as a debit card. |
5555 5555 5555 4444 | Mastercard | Pays straight away. |
5200 8282 8282 8210 | Mastercard debit | Pays straight away, as a debit card. |
3782 822463 10005 | American Express | Pays straight away. Use a four-digit security code. |
Cards that ask for an extra check
Banks sometimes ask the customer to confirm a payment in a pop-up from their banking app. These numbers make that happen on your form, so you can see what the customer sees.
| Card number | What happens |
|---|---|
4000 0025 0000 3155 | A confirmation pop-up appears. Press Complete in it and the payment goes through; press Fail and it is declined. |
4000 0000 0000 3220 | The pop-up is compulsory. The payment only goes through once the check is passed. |
Cards that are declined
Use these to see the message a customer gets when their bank says no, and to check that a declined payment leaves no paid booking behind.
| Card number | What the customer sees |
|---|---|
4000 0000 0000 0002 | Declined by the card issuer, with no reason given. |
4000 0000 0000 9995 | Declined: not enough money on the card. |
4000 0000 0000 9987 | Declined: the card has been reported lost. |
4000 0000 0000 9979 | Declined: the card has been reported stolen. |
4000 0000 0000 0069 | Declined: the card has expired. |
4000 0000 0000 0127 | Declined: the security code is wrong. |
4000 0000 0000 0119 | Declined: a processing error at the bank. Trying again sometimes works, as it would in real life. |
4242 4242 4242 4241 | Refused before it is even sent, because the number itself is not valid. |
Cards for the rarer things
A few numbers rehearse the situations you hope never to meet: a card left on file that stops working, and the customer’s bank clawing a payment back.
| Card number | What happens |
|---|---|
4000 0000 0000 0341 | The card can be saved on file, but a later charge to it fails. |
4000 0000 0000 0259 | The payment goes through, then the customer’s bank disputes it as fraud. |
4000 0000 0000 2685 | The payment goes through, then is disputed as "service not received". |
4000 0000 0000 5423 | The payment goes through, then a fraud warning arrives from the bank before any chargeback. |
On Booked Payments these disputes and warnings happen on Booked’s test account, not yours, so they do not show under Chargebacks & disputes or Flagged before a chargeback on your Payments screen. The booking itself still goes through, so you can check what the customer sees.
Apple Pay and Google Pay in test mode
On a phone, the wallet button can show above the card fields in test mode too, and nothing is charged. What test mode cannot tell you is whether the wallets will work on your live site: while it is on, the Apple Pay & Google Pay card can show them as live without the real domain check having been done. Look at that card again, and press Check again, once test mode is off.
Refunds and your Payments screen
On Booked Payments a test payment sits on Booked’s test account, so it does not appear in the Payments list or your balance, and there is nothing real to give back. Refund payment on a test booking works on real charges only and will not go through. Cancel the booking instead.
Testing with your own Stripe
Test mode works the same way. The pretend charge is made on Booked’s own test account, not yours, so nothing touches your Stripe account and there are no test keys to paste. Switch it off before customers book, as with Booked Payments. The other providers are marked Coming soon. See Using your own payment provider.
Afterwards
Booked notes each booking made in test mode as a test, but nothing on screen marks it: in the diary and on Bookings it looks like any other paid appointment, and Taken online on Insights counts its payment. Cancel your test bookings when you are finished, which frees the slots and takes them out of your numbers; the cancellation email goes to whichever address you booked with. When you are happy, turn the switch off, and the next card typed into your form is real.