The Card Updater or card updater is an automatic service offered by major card brands to ensure that recurring payment information is not interrupted when a card expires or is replaced.
On this page:
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Main card brands compatible with this functionality
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How does the Card Updater work?
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How is the Card Updater triggered by Guru?
Main card brands compatible with this functionality
To ensure that recurring charges are not interrupted, the Card Updater service is supported by the main card brands, which are:
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Mastercard
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Visa
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Hipercard
These brands allow billing data to be automatically renewed, but for the service to work, the Issuing Bank needs to adhere to the card brand's program to securely share updated information and your payment platform is properly integrated with these systems to capture and apply the new data to saved cards.
How does the Card Updater work?
When an establishment tries to make a charge and the old card is refused for some reason, the acquirer's system consults the card brand.
In these cases, the following occurs:
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Data Exchange: compatible card brands inform the merchant's system of the new card data linked to that account;
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Invisible Update: the merchant's system automatically updates the registration; and
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Continuity: the charge is successfully processed on the new card, avoiding service suspension.
How is the Card Updater triggered by Guru?
As we informed, the Card Updater is an automatic update service that prevents subscription interruptions when the customer's card expires or is replaced.
In Guru, this functionality is triggered only for recurring charges (Subscriptions) and with the following flow:
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A renewal attempt is sent to the payment processor;
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Whenever the card is denied (for any reason) Guru will try to renew the card (if it is active in the customer's account);
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The processor, in conjunction with the card brand, identifies that the issuer changed the card.
And what are the rules for this process to occur?
For the update to occur successfully, the following conditions must be met, such as:
- Recurring Only: the Card Updater does not work on the first purchase - the customer must have an active subscription with a previously valid card;
- Decline Type: the Guru will always attempt to update the card if the feature is active and the charge attempt returns as declined, regardless of the reason - this only happens when the transaction is submitted to the payment processor.
When the return reason provided by the payment processor is of the irreversible type, Guru marks the card not to be used again in automatic processing. In this case, when a new charge attempt happens on our side and the card is marked not to be used, Guru cancels the charge attempt with the error Card cannot be used again.
In these cases, the standard transactional flow is interrupted even before reaching the Card Updater, resulting in a definitive charge failure in Guru.