Credit and debit card information often changes because cards expire, are lost or stolen, or there are other changes to the account. BlueSnap's Account Updater enables card information changes (such as expiration date changes, account number changes, account closures, and more) to be conveniently updated so that you don't have to contact each customer individually.

Whether you vault your own shopper card data or they are in the BlueSnap vault, you can use Account Updater to keep all your shoppers' payment information up-to-date.

Benefits

Rescue up to 10% of recurring sales
Prevent interruption of customer service due to non-payment
Maintain customer satisfaction
Minimize costs associated with collections and manual account updates

Supported Cards

The Account Updater service is supported for American Express, Discover, Mastercard, and Visa cards.

How it Works

BlueSnap offers different Account Updater services, depending on where you store the cards and how you manage subscriptions.

If you vault cards on BlueSnap & use BlueSnap's subscription engine

BlueSnap automatically updates cards for you behind-the-scenes to ensure that they are current before the next charge. This applies either if you are using one of our Hosted solutions, or if you are using an API solution and you are vaulting shoppers in BlueSnap.

The cards are flagged a week before their next billing date and are sent to Mastercard, Visa, and Discover to automatically update the card information.

No action is required by the merchant nor the customer to continue the subscription and there is no interruption in service.

If you vault cards on BlueSnap but use your own subscription engine

BlueSnap will flag your shopper’s credit cards 30 days before they expire and automatically update expiration dates. In addition, BlueSnap will send all cards of declined transactions to check if there is an update to the card. You will be notified via IPN if a card has been updated, and will be able to resend the transaction.

If you vault your own card & manage your own subscriptions

Use our batch Account Updater service to efficiently check for card and account updates for Visa, Mastercard, and Discover.

We recommend this workflow to ensure you have all the latest card details before you process a payment. Start by pulling a list of the cards that will be charged, at least 7 days in advance of the scheduled payment. Then send in a batch Account Updater request containing all of the cards that you want to have checked and updated.

The Account Updater process takes about 7 days to complete. About 7 days after you sent the batch Account Updater request, you can retrieve the results. The response will include the status of every valid card that was sent. If there was a change to the card, the new number and/or expiration date will be provided.

For complete details, see the Account Updater API documentation.

Account Updater Settings

You can adjust your Account Updater settings through the Merchant Portal. Certain settings will be enabled by default.

Subscription Account Updater — Enable if you are using BlueSnap Subscriptions. For BlueSnap-managed subscriptions, an account updater request will be made for every card before a recurring charge attempt. For merchant-managed subscriptions, an account updater request will be made for every card that is associated with an active subscription and is due to expire.
API Account Updater — Enable if you are storing complete credit card details outside of BlueSnap and want to trigger an account updater request with an API call.
Post-Decline Account Updater — Enable to help manage declined transactions. For every stored card that is declined by the bank, an account updater request will be sent after the declined transaction attempt.
Card due to Expired Account Updater — Enable for updates if a stored credit card is due to expire soon. This will apply to every stored card, whether it is associated with an active subscription or not.

Account Updater Response Codes

Code	Message	Action
500*	The account number was changed	Submit the account number returned in the completion response.
501*	The account was closed.	Contact the cardholder for updated information.
502*	The expiration date was changed.	Submit the expiration date returned in the completion response.
503	The issuing bank does not participate in the update program.	Submit the original card information.
504*	Contact the cardholder for updated information.	Contact the cardholder for updated information.
505	No match found.	Submit the original card information.
506	No changes found.	Submit the original card information.

* Account Updater charge applies to these response codes