This is anecdotal, so take it with a grain: I worked for a credit card processor about a decade ago, and it was routine to have the merchant run a penny transaction on the terminal, and refund it post testing to make sure it works.
They're fairly large processing over $40b in annual transaction volumes, and there wasn't any stress about not doing it again post testing (the only stress was the customer wanting a refund for the transaction costs).
If it is a merchant bank, or network requirement, it's either explicitly for card not present transactions, or not well followed. The important factor was handling of the credit card information (PCI DSS compliance).
They're fairly large processing over $40b in annual transaction volumes, and there wasn't any stress about not doing it again post testing (the only stress was the customer wanting a refund for the transaction costs).
If it is a merchant bank, or network requirement, it's either explicitly for card not present transactions, or not well followed. The important factor was handling of the credit card information (PCI DSS compliance).