Cardknox Account Updater
What Is Account Updater?
Cardknox’s Account Updater tool scans your customers’ payment information and identifies any cards that have expired or are no longer active. Then, the tool obtains the correct expiration date or account number using data provided by Fiserv and it automatically updates the customer’s account information.
This robust tool works in tandem with recurring payments to prevent lost sales due to expired cards or closed accounts. You benefit by not having to contact the customer, get the correct card information, and manually update the account in the event that the card has been declined. Account Updater automatically retrieves the correct information for you, which saves you time and reduces the chance of data entry errors. Customers with recurring payment schedules benefit, too, because their payment card information is always up to date which means they don’t have to worry about missed payments or having to provide new card information.
How It Works
When a card is declined, Cardknox sends the card data to our processor, Fiserv, to check for updated card information. Once the updated card information is received, it is stored on file and subsequent transactions are processed with this new information.
Since Account Updater does not provide updated card information in real-time, we recommend that merchants wait 3 to 5 days before retrying a declined transaction. This will ensure that the updated card information has had enough time to be returned and applied to the transaction, which will increase the odds that the retried transaction will be approved.
Once Cardknox already has updated card information for a specific card, the updated card information will be sent in when any merchant with Account Updater enabled on their account processes a transaction using the outdated card information. This will happen automatically in real-time.
Recurring Billing
Account Updater works with Cardknox’s Recurring Billing feature. If a card is declined, the system retries the transaction once per day for 5 consecutive days for a total of 5 times. If we receive updated card information before the transaction is tried the 5th time, the system uses the updated information on the next attempt to process the transaction. If we do not receive updated information within the 5-day retry period, the system uses the existing card information for the recurring payment.
Account Updater works best when your system or software is set up and integrated with Cardknox to programmatically store tokens. Your system will store the token returned with the new transaction so that you can use it for future transactions.
Ready to get started with Account Updater? Click here to learn more about this powerful tool and say goodbye to declined transactions!
FAQ
1. How soon after the card is declined should I retry the transaction?
We recommend that merchants who are signed up for Cardknox Account Updater wait 3-5 days before retrying the card, as it may take several days for the correct information to be obtained.
2. Is American Express supported by Account Updater?
No, Account Updater does not support Amex transactions at this time.
3. When Account Updater obtains updated card information, will it replace all of the cardholder’s existing payment methods in the Cardknox Merchant Portal?
No; when Account Updater is enabled, updated information will only be used on transactions that are made with the declined or expired card. This applies to future transactions using either actual card data or a Cardknox token.
4. Can I opt-in for both UpdateYourCard and Account Updater?
Yes. Note that once you’ve enrolled in both, UpdateYourCard will be utilized before Account Updater. In the event that a transaction is declined, the cardholder will first be contacted through UpdateYourCard, and if the transaction is still declined with the cardholder-provided data, Account Updater will go into effect to obtain the correct card information.
5. Does Account Updater work with tokens?
Yes. We recommend that you save the updated token once the card has been updated and the transaction is approved.
6. What are Cardknox tokens?
Cardknox’s proprietary tokenization system replaces customer payment card data with randomly-generated tokens. When processing a transaction, the token is transmitted to a secure environment in which the real data is stored.
This system keeps sensitive payment information safe from hackers and simplifies PCI compliance.
