Card account updater

Card account updater (CAU) is a process that Rainforest runs with the card networks to keep the card information on stored payment methods up-to-date.

Why keep payment methods up-to-date?

CAU is useful when the card expires or was replaced with a new card number. CAU can help reduce decline rate when your system has recurring payments or subscriptions.

The following information can be updated on a payment method:

• Card number
• Expiration date
• Card brand

How does CAU work?

CAU is a batched process that runs once a week on Thursdays. All card payment methods with the status of Active are sent to the card networks to request for updated information. The card networks can take up to 5 business days to respond. Rainforest will update the payment methods in real-time as the card networks respond.

What payment methods are updated?

Rainforest can configure all merchants on your platform to automatically have CAU enabled or only enable on specific merchants. All card payment methods will be submitted to the card networks to request for updated information if the following criteria is met:

• The payment method's Billable Merchant has CAU enabled
• The payment method's status is Active
• The payment method does not have CAU disabled

How is CAU billed?

Each payment method replaced or marked as disabled via the CAU process incurs a Card Account Updater fee. This fee can be passed onto the merchant via the merchant billing profile.

Rainforest utilizes the Billable Merchant ID on the payment method to know which merchant to bill for the payment method updates via CAU.

How to enable

Contact your Platform Success Manager or reach out to support to get started with CAU. We'll help you:

1. Set up the Card Account Updater fee to pass fees onto your merchants
2. Enable CAU for all your merchants or a subset of merchants

Head over to the card account updater guide for additional information on the CAU process and how to get started.