Overview
Automatic Card Updater (ACU) is a service for merchants who want to update their customer's credit cards saved in Recurring subscriptions as well as in the Customer Vault. Merchants that have this Value-Added Service enabled will have the Automatic Card Updater settings page available to them. In the Automatic Card Updater settings page merchants are able to configure how often the gateway should check for updates, what cards should qualify for updates, and view the status of their updates.
Prerequisites
The user will need the 'Access Administrative Options' permission to be able to access and adjust the Automatic Card Updater settings. Primary users have this permission set by default and cannot be removed.
Navigating to Automatic Card Updater Settings Page
In the Merchant Portal, on the left side panel → click on Options → Settings → under Transaction Options click on Automatic Card Updater; or from the homepage under Utilities → click on Settings → under Transaction Options click on Automatic Card Updater.
Automatic Card Updater Configuration
In the Automatic Card Updater settings page, merchants can set the conditions as to when cards are sent and on what activity. Merchants can choose how often they want the cards updated between once a month or twice a month, or each quarter, or each year, and select what cards should be checked for updates per service (Customer Vault and Recurring Subscriptions, if applicable). They also have an option to update their records immediately upon activating the service.
Option to Update Records Immediately upon Activating the Service
Merchants have the option for cards to be sent for updates 'immediately' upon activating the service. Once they activate ACU and acknowledge the Billing Authorization for the added service, they will have the option to check or uncheck the "Update my records immediately" box if they wish.
- Merchants will only have one opportunity to check the box and save the Immediate Run option when they first activate the service. This option is only available the first time they load the ACU settings page.
- The default run date will be the next available date, therefore if they enable the Immediate Run option, the next scheduled run will be updated so that it is not within 5 days of the immediate run. The new scheduled date will be in the following month, closest to one month, but not going over 30 days.
- For example (in a scenario of the 'Once a Month' option), if the merchant enrolls on the 23rd, the normal default is the 25th. If they select the immediate run, then that run will go on the 24th and the next scheduled run will be updated to the 20th of the next month.
- The Immediate Run bypasses the normal scheduling. So the “next scheduled run” excludes the Immediate Run.
- If they do check the box and the settings are saved with the Immediate Run option checked, merchants will see the following message. This message will only be displayed until the records are sent for updates. After the cards are submitted from the Immediate Run, this message is removed:
How often should cards be updated?
The Default will be monthly on the next available run date:
Merchants can change the default by choosing from one of the 3 options:
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Once or Twice a Month on specified day/days
- Selecting Twice a month, will reveal a 2nd dropdown to select a 2nd date (see image below)
- Each Quarter (1st of January, April, July, and October)
- Each Year (on January 1st)
What cards should be checked for updates?
When updates are received and merchant records update, only those card records that were sent for updates will be updated. The records that meet the initial criteria will be updated. For example, if a merchant has two vault records and only one meets the look back period, that one record will be updated. Or, if a card is in recurring (active) and not active in the vault, only the recurring record will be updated.
Update Customer Vault
The Customer Vault option will only be displayed to merchants who have the Customer Vault service active. There are three settings available to update Customer Vault records. Merchants can decide if they want to only check credit cards that have been added in the past X number of days, or only if they were used to run a transaction in the last X number or days, or both, or also add in to check every card that is expiring or has expired.
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The number that the merchant enters in the 'Set the number of days to look back for activity' field, will reflect the number of days they see in the first two Vault options. If set to zero, all stored credit cards will be checked per the selected options, and it will read 'unlimited days'.
- If the look back field is set to Zero, it will still check all cards, but merchants can decide if they want to check all the cards that were added and/or check cards on vault records that were used in a transaction.
- The option to check all cards that are expired or will expire this month is independent of the look back days, so this option can be used alone or in conjunction with the other 2 settings options.
- By default upon activating ACU, the 'number of days to look back' is set to 730 days and the first two options will be checked. The merchant can change these in their ACU settings page.
Update All Active Recurring Subscriptions
Merchants have the option to update all active recurring subscriptions by checking the 'All Active Recurring Subscriptions' box. Recurring Subscriptions that come back as requiring customer contact or closed accounts, will be auto-paused.
Status of ACU Updates
The Status section can be used to see:
- when the next scheduled run date is:
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when updates have been sent (Pending):
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when the updates are received and are being processed/waiting for the response (In Progress):
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when updates have been received and all applicable records have been updated (Complete):