What is a SaaS Card Updater Service?  

A SaaS card updater service is a tool that automatically updates your customers’ credit card details. This approach may be applicable to businesses with recurring transactions, such as subscriptions.

When a customer receives a new card due to the expiration, loss, or upgrade of their old card, the tool updates the new card details in your system to facilitate payment processing. 

• Payment information should be maintained to reflect the current and accurate state. 
• Is intended to limit declined transactions and service interruptions. 
• Could relate to customer satisfaction levels and have an impact on the manual workload of your team.

The service updates the two pieces of information most likely to change and cause a payment decline: the card’s account number and its expiration date.  This may decrease the necessity of contacting customers to obtain their new details.  

It works with most US-issued cards from major networks like American Express, Visa, Mastercard, and Discover.

Card information needs to be updated for a few reasons: 

• Expiration: Cards have a built-in expiry date, and issuers proactively send new ones before this date arrives. 
• Beveiliging: If a card is lost, stolen, or compromised, a replacement card will be sent; this action is intended to provide account protection. 
• Technologie: Cards are periodically updated with new technology, such as contactless chips. 
• Physical Wear and Tear: Old cards can simply get worn out from physical use over time.

By being proactive, rather than waiting for a subscription payment to fail, the service automatically checks for and changes updated card details before the transaction is even attempted. 

This process aims to limit interruptions experienced by customers and seeks to reduce revenue loss for the business resulting from payment declines, with the goal of supporting revenue stability.

It improves customer retention by preventing “involuntary churn.”  This occurs when a customer’s subscription is canceled not because they chose to leave, but because their payment failed. 

Seamless renewals may influence customer experience.  They don’t have to worry about manually updating their card details, which makes them more likely to stick around.

Using a card updater service is beneficial for your business: 

• Payment success rates can affect revenue predictability and de levenslange waarde van de klant. 
• Klantbehoud is related to automatic updates, which may influence the reduction of onvrijwillige churn due to failed SaaS payments. 
• The compliant environment for sensitive card data management can affect your company’s overall risk assessment. 
• The automated update process has a relationship to the time, effort, and money your team spends on updates. 

The cost isn’t universal and depends on the provider and your transaction volume.  You’re likely to see a mix of these pricing components: 

• Monthly Fees: A flat rate for using the service. 
• Per-Update Fees: A small charge (often just cents) for each credit card that gets successfully updated. 
• Transaction Fees: Your betalingsverwerker may have its own related fees. 

It’s best to weigh these costs against the return on investment (ROI) you get from preventing lost revenue and customer churn. 

The protection of cardholder information usually involves multiple security layers at services with established reputations: 

• Naleving van gegevensbeschermingsregelgeving zoals PCI DSS. 
• Encryptie of all sensitive card data. 
• Strong access controls to limit who can see or handle the information. 
• Continuous monitoring and regular security audits are implemented as a process for identifying threats. 
• A solid incident response plan in case a data breach ever occurs. 

While they both perform similar functions, Visa’s VAU and Mastercard’s ABU have some operational differences.  The main things that set them apart are: 

• Update Frequency: How often they provide updated information to merchants. 
• Transaction Support: The specific types of “card-on-file” transactions they support. 

Because of these differences, SaaS merchants need to evaluate the features and fee structures of each service to see which one is a fit for their business needs.