Card-on-File & Recurring Payments

When storing a payment method for subsequent recurring transactions it is important to properly identify the transaction both with the appropriate cofType field and the original authorized transaction within the firstTxns field within the txns request.

Failure to submit both values will not identify the transaction as recurring with the Processor and increase the Risk of any subsequent recurring transaction with the token being rejected by the issuer.

In this resource we outline best practices for the following Recurring Transaction use cases:

1. New CoF (Card-on-File)

2. Existing CoF (Card-on-File)

3. Imported CoF (Card-on-File)

To properly identify a transaction as recurring the following steps need to occur:

1. A authorized transaction needs to be submitted to Payrix with CVV. If available AVS should also be included for validation. The first transaction should be submitted as traditional eComas either a $0.00 Auth or for the first recurring transaction amount. After this all subsequent transactions will be submitted as recurring . This authorized transaction is referred to as the initial transaction.
   cofType: N/A
   origin: 2/eCommerce
   

2. The authorized (inital) transaction needs to be tokenized. The transaction can be tokenized after the original transaction is authorized or embedded within the authorizing transaction request. If embedding the token creation request it is important to delete the token if the initial transaction fails, as this will be an invalid authorization.
   

3. Submit subsequent recurring transactions with the token and initial transaction.
   cofType: scheduled
   origin: 2/eCommerce
   token: {Token ID}
   firstTxn: {Txn ID from Initial Transaction}

1. New CoF

When creating a new token for recurring billing both AVS & CVV data should be submitted within the initial transaction request.

2. Existing CoF

Existing token transactions submitted with a cofType of “scheduled” should have an initial transaction submitted within the firstTxn field. If this information is not available then a new “initial” transaction that is only identified as eCommerce (submitted without cofType) should be submitted using a $0.00 Auth.

To increase the chance of subsequent transactions processing both AVS & CVV data (if available) should be provided.

3. Imported CoF

When a transaction is imported from another Processor they do not send over the initial transaction. For this reason, even when a recurring transaction is imported a new initial transaction should be performed on the Payrix platform. After receiving the token import file an initial $0.00 Auth transaction should be submitted with each token without the cofType field. Then all subsequent transactions with the token should submit the initial transaction ID within the firstTxn field in addition to the cofType field.