Skip to main content

Real-time account updater

The Real-time Account Updater (RTAU) is an optional service which updates account information for Visa cards as part of the payment processing flow. It enables recurring payments or stored payments transactions to use updated account information that may have changed due to card expirations or reissues.

Before you begin

You must enroll for Visa RTAU during the onboarding process. Or to add the service, reach out to your relationship manager. Once this is complete, the following transaction eligibility requirements must also be met:

  • Must be a card-not-present transaction.
  • The transaction must be a merchant-initiated recurring payment or cardholder-initiated stored payment transaction.
  • The merchant in the payment request must not have the merchant category codes 5962, 5966, or 5967.
  • The transaction must be a Visa transaction.

Payment request

Once enrolled in the RTAU service, transactions meeting the above eligibility requirements will be enabled for the service. Enrolled merchants should still include the requestAccountUpdater field with the field value of true or null when submitting a POST request to the /payments endpoint for a Visa transaction.

The following example shows a Visa transaction using RTAU.

HTTP method: POST
Endpoint: /payments

Json
{
    "paymentMethodType": {
        "card": {
            "accountNumber": "4012001037141112",
            "expiry": {
                "month": 5,
                "year": 2025
            },
            "accountUpdater": {
                "requestAccountUpdater": true
            }
        }
    }
}

The following example shows a Visa transaction bypassing RTAU.

To bypass the RTAU service for an eligible transaction, the requestAccountUpdater field value should be false for an enrolled merchant.

HTTP method: POST
Endpoint: /payments

Json
{
    "paymentMethodType": {
        "card": {
            "accountNumber": "4012001037141112",
            "expiry": {
                "month": 5,
                "year": 2025
            },
            "accountUpdater": {
                "requestAccountUpdater": false
            }
        }
    }
}

Payment response

In the payment response, there are two objects that contain RTAU response data:

  • accountUpdater — Displays the new account or expiration date, when available, as well as fields that explain the changes that have taken place on the account.
  • networkAccountUpdater — Displays the codes and values provided by the payment networks.

The following are examples of possible response scenarios:

Scenario: A valid card with no updates

Json
{
    "accountUpdater": {
        "requestAccountUpdater": true,
        "accountUpdaterResponse": "MATCH_NO_UPDATE",
        "accountUpdaterReasonCode": "SUCCESS",
        "accountUpdaterReasonMessage": "Valid card no update available"
    },
    "networkAccountUpdater": {
        "replacementCode": false,
        "networkResponseCode": "VAU012"
    }
}

Scenario: A card updated with a new account number

Json
{
    "accountUpdater": {
        "requestAccountUpdater": true,
        "accountNumber": "4012001037141112",
        "accountUpdaterResponse": "NEW_ACCOUNT",
        "accountUpdaterReasonCode": "SUCCESS",
        "accountUpdaterReasonMessage": "Account Update provided for Account Number"
    },
    "networkAccountUpdater": {
        "accountStatus": "A",
        "replacementCode": true
    }
}

Scenario: A card updated with a new account number and expiry date

Json
{
    "accountUpdater": {
        "requestAccountUpdater": true,
        "accountNumber": "4012001037141112",
        "newAccountExpiry": {
            "month": 12,
            "year": 2025
        },
        "accountUpdaterResponse": "NEW_ACCOUNT_AND_EXPIRY",
        "accountUpdaterReasonCode": "SUCCESS",
        "accountUpdaterReasonMessage": "Account Update provided for both account number and expiry"
    },
    "networkAccountUpdater": {
        "accountStatus": "A",
        "replacementCode": true
    }
}

Scenario: The requested account was closed

Json
{
    "accountUpdater": {
        "requestAccountUpdater": true,
        "accountUpdaterResponse": "CLOSED_ACCOUNT",
        "accountUpdaterReasonCode": "SUCCESS",
        "accountUpdaterReasonMessage": "Account has been closed"
    },
    "networkAccountUpdater": {
        "accountStatus": "C",
        "replacementCode": false
    }
}

Scenario: A card updated with a new expiration date

Json
{
    "accountUpdater": {
        "requestAccountUpdater": true,
        "accountUpdaterResponse": "NEW_EXPIRY",
        "accountUpdaterReasonCode": "SUCCESS",
        "accountUpdaterReasonMessage": "Account Update provided for Account Expiry"
    },
    "networkAccountUpdater": {
        "accountStatus": "E",
        "replacementCode": true
    }
}

Scenario: A card updated with a new contact for the cardholder

Json
{
    "accountUpdater": {
        "requestAccountUpdater": true,
        "accountUpdaterResponse": "CONTACT_CARDHOLDER",
        "accountUpdaterReasonCode": "SUCCESS",
        "accountUpdaterReasonMessage": "Contact Cardholder"
    },
    "networkAccountUpdater": {
        "accountStatus": "Q",
        "replacementCode": false
    }
}

Scenario: There was no match: however, the card issuer supports RTAU

Json
{
    "accountUpdater": {
        "requestAccountUpdater": true,
        "accountUpdaterResponse": "NO_MATCH_PARTICIPATING_BIN",
        "accountUpdaterReasonCode": "SUCCESS"
    }
}

Scenario: The card issuer does not support RTAU

Json
{
    "accountUpdater": {
        "requestAccountUpdater": true,
        "accountUpdaterResponse": "NO_MATCH_NON_PARTICIPATING_BIN",
        "accountUpdaterReasonCode": "ERROR",
        "accountUpdaterReasonMessage": "Issuer does not support real time AU"
    },
    "networkAccountUpdater": {
        "replacementCode": false,
        "networkResponseCode": "VAU009"
    }
}