Card Account Updater

Product Overview

Account Updater bridges the gap between card issuers and merchants, seamlessly delivering updated card information directly into your hands. No more chasing customers for new details or wrangling with failed payments. This powerful network tool empowers you to:

• Boost authorization success rates: Minimize declined transactions and ensure smooth recurring payments for subscription models.

• Reduce customer churn: Offer a frictionless checkout experience that keeps customers happy and engaged.

• Simplify workflows: Eliminate manual updates and focus on building your business instead of chasing card details.

• Enhance security: Leverage secure and encrypted data exchange to protect both you and your customers. VGS Account Updater simplifies connection to payment networks, automatically fetching and delivering updated card information to merchants, ensuring seamless recurring payments and reducing customer churn.

Account Updater with Card Objects

The Card Management Platform is built to support enrolling individual Card Objects on a per-account basis, enabling effective account-level card management. Each Card Object is uniquely identified by a cardID. When the Account Updater service is activated for an account, the platform performs network lookups using the associated cardID. The service is compatible with Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover networks.

Account Updater via CMP

We support Account Updater for Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover networks. Customers are enrolled in Account Updater once their accounts are activated post-network onboarding.

Please note:

• American Express and Discover support is available only for direct merchants.

• Real-time Account Updater is supported only for Visa and Mastercard.

• For Amex and Discover, real-time updates are returned only for cards previously enrolled with us.

Customers can choose one of two paths for facilitating Account Updater enrollment.

On-Create Enrollment:

This is the default and the automated enrollment option. When a card is created, VGS automatically enrolls it in the Account Updater services that are enabled for the account.

• Behavior:

  • Card creation triggers automatic Account Updater enrollment.

  • A webhook notification is sent when the enrollment is successful.

  • If updates are available from the networks at the time of enrollment, they are delivered as part of the notification.

• Best For:

  • Customers who want automatic Account Updater tracking with minimal integration effort.

Manual Enrollment:

Manual enrollment gives customers fine-grained control over when and how a card is subscribed to Account Updater services. Card creation alone does not trigger enrollment.

• Behavior:

  • Cards are created without Account Updater enrollment.

  • To subscribe:

    • Customers must explicitly enroll cards using the subscription endpoint: POST /cards/{CardID}/card-update-subscriptions.

    • A confirmation response is returned immediately.

    • Enrollment-Type/Provisioning-Method: Manual.

  • To unsubscribe:

    • DELETE /cards/{CardID}/card-update-subscriptions.

    • Account Updater tracking is removed for the specified card, and the card is marked as unenrolled from Account Updater within VGS systems.

    • Once unsubscribed, the Account Updater object is removed from the GET /cards/{CardID} response, and no further Account Updater updates will be delivered.

    • No further card updates will be fetched or delivered.

    • Enrollment-Type/Provisioning-Method: The card may have been subscribed to Account Updater either:

      • Manually, via the /card-update-subscriptions endpoint after card creation using the manual method , or

      • Automatically, if created using the oncreate method during card registration.

  • Best For:

    • Customers who want precise control over which cards are enrolled and when.

On-Demand Updates

This flow allows customers to perform real-time Account Updater lookups without enrolling the card in ongoing tracking. This is a stateless request available only for Visa and Mastercard.

• Behavior:

  • Use the endpoint: POST /cards/{CardID}/check.

  • This retrieves current Account Updater data (if available) but does not enroll the card for future updates.

  • On-demand requests are typically used in decisioning workflows or just-in-time processing.

  • Enrollment-Type/Provisioning-Method: Manual.

• Limitations:

  • American Express and Discover do not support real-time Account Updater lookups.

    • Amex: Updates are retrieved approximately every 30 minutes.

    • Discover: Updates are retrieved once daily.

  • Updates for Amex and Discover are handled through batch-based file processing and delivered via webhooks.

• Best For:

  • Customers who want real-time update visibility without long-term tracking.

  • Commonly used with Manual Enrollment, but technically compatible with Oncreate.

AU Enrollment and Update Attributes in GET /cards/{id} Response

When a card is enrolled in Account Updater (AU), the GET /cards/{id} response will include two AU-related type attributes on the card:

• "type": "card_update_subscriptions" — Indicates that the card is currently enrolled in AU and reflects its active subscription status.

• "type": "card_updates" — Contains the most recent update details for the card, showing what changes (if any) have been received.

When the card is unenrolled from AU:

• The "card_update_subscriptions" attribute will no longer appear in the response.

• The "card_updates" attribute will still be returned, providing the last update information available for the card.

This ensures the API conveys both the current enrollment status and the last known update details without losing historical context.

Setup Requirements

• Account Updater must be enabled on the customer's CMP account.

• For manual workflows, enrollment_type: manual must be configured.