For additional flexibility with real-time, recurring, and card-on-file transactions, Merchants have the ability to securely save their customers' card payment and/or eCheck data by creating a token. By tokenizing a customer's payment method, Merchants can schedule future card-on-file charges and create recurring payment plans.

How to Tokenize a Cardholder’s Payment Method

There are two ways in which a cardholder’s payment data can be saved for CoF & recurring billing transactions:

Creating a Customer in the Payrix Portal

Merchants have the ability to tokenize a cardholder’s payment method data directly in the Portal via the Customers section on the Dashboard menu. When creating a Customer, the Merchant will be prompted to enter the cardholder’s personal information, including name, address, and email address.

Once a Customer is created, the Merchant can attach a saved payment method (token) to that Customer for future CoF or recurring billing.

Tokenizing a Payment Method As You Submit a Transaction Via the API

A customer’s payment method can also be saved (tokenized) via the Payrix API. This is done by sending a POST request to the /tokens endpoint. Within the BODY of the request, you will include the customer’s information (name, address etc.), as well as the payment method (card/account number, exp. date etc.) that you would like to tokenize.

[POST]https://api.payrix.com/tokens

Content-Type:application/json
APIKEY:{{private_api_key}}

{
	"customer":{
		"first":"John",
		"last":"Smith",
		"email":"john@example.com",
		"address1":"123 Main Street",
		"city":"New York",
		"state":"NY",
		"zip":"12345",
	},
	"payment":{
		"number":"4242424242424242",
		"cvv":"123"
	},
	"expiration":"0120"
}

Creating a Token Simultaneously As You Submit a Transaction

You also have the ability to tokenize a customer’s payment method simultaneously as you submit a transaction via the API. To do this, you will need to include the customer’s personal information within the BODY of your POST request to the /txns endpoint.

[POST]https://api.payrix.com/txns

Content-Type:application/json
APIKEY:{{private_api_key}}

{
    "merchant": "t1_mer_59efbf4e69b27a4760b885d",
    "type": "1",
    "origin": "2",
    "token": {
        "payment": {
            "number": "4242424242424242",
            "cvv": "123",
            "expiration": "1020"
        },
        "customer": {
          "first": "John",
          "last": "Smith",
          "email":"john@example.com",
          "address1":"123 Main Street",
          "city":"New York",
          "state":"NY",
          "zip":"12345",
          }
    },
    "total": "10000"
}

{
	"merchant": "t1_mer_59efbf4e69b27a4760b885d",
	"type": "7",
	"origin": "2",
	"token": {
		"payment": {
			"method": "8",
			"number": "123456789",
			"routing": "123456789"
		},
		"customer": {
			"first": "First",
			"last": "Last",
			"email":"john@example.com",
			"address1":"123 Main Street",
			"city":"New York",
			"state":"NY",
			"zip":"12345",
		}
	},
	"total": "10000"
}

Recurring Payments

One of the key features of Tokenizing a payment method is the ability for Merchants to use it to schedule recurring payments. This solution gives a Merchant the ability to charge their customer’s tokenized payment method in their desired amount and at their desired intervals. For example, Merchants can utilize recurring payments to charge their customers a monthly fee or for billing on a subscription-based business model.

Recurring payments can set up directly in the Portal, by creating a recurring payment Plan & subscribing their desired Customer/s to that Plan.

The Payrix Platform offers a Recurring Payments (/subscriptions) solution that enables you to schedule recurring transactions directly via our Portal.

As an alternative, you can create your own recurring transaction database. In this case, there are a few required fields you will need to submit in order to be in accordance with card brand mandates - see recurring payment guidelines here.

Because the customer's information (e.g. address) remains linked to each token, issuer declines due to AVS mismatch or similar are a lot less likely. If your client would like to be able to keep multiple payment methods on file, they can save multiple tokens per customer.