Recurring Payments

A recurring payment is a credentials-on-file (COF) transaction in a series of payments that you bill to a customer for a fixed amount at regular intervals that do not exceed one year between transactions. The series of recurring payments is the result of an agreement between you and the customer for the purchase of goods or services that are provided at regular intervals. Recurring payments are also known as
subscriptions
.
Mastercard uses standing order and subscription payments instead of recurring payments. See Mastercard Standing Order Payments and Mastercard Subscription Payments.

Recurring Billing Service for Recurring Payments

Do not use this document for the Recurring Billing service.
Use the
Recurring Billing Developer Guide
. When you use the Recurring Billing service,
Cybersource
saves and stores payment credentials for recurring transactions, ensuring compliance with COF best practices.

Customer-Initiated Recurring Payment with PAN

A recurring payment is a credentials-on-file (COF) transaction in a series of payments that you bill to a customer at a fixed amount, at regular intervals that do not exceed one year between transactions. The series of recurring payments is the result of an agreement between you and the customer for the purchase of goods or services that are provided at regular intervals.

Supported Card Types

These are the supported card types for processing credentialed transactions:
  • American Express
  • Visa
Mastercard uses standing order and subscription payments instead of recurring payments. See Mastercard Standing Order Payments and Mastercard Subscription Payments.

Recurring Billing Service for Recurring Payments

Do not use this document for the Recurring Billing service.
Use the
Recurring Billing Developer Guide
. When you use the Recurring Billing service,
Cybersource
saves and stores payment credentials for recurring transactions, ensuring compliance with COF best practices.

Address Verification Service for Recurring Payments

If your processor supports the Address Verification Service (AVS), then the AVS should verify every authorization request.
Cybersource
recommends checking the AVS's results for the first recurring payment to ensure that the payment information is accurate and to reduce the risk of fraud.
You must determine how to handle the AVS results for any subsequent recurring payments that are not the same as the already-verified billing address information from the first recurring payment.

Endpoint

Set the
ccAuthService_run
field to
true
.
Send the request to
https://ics2ws.ic3.com/commerce/1.x/transactionProcessor
.

Successful Response

You must store the
network transaction ID
from the successful response message to include in subsequent MIT authorization requests in order to associate the CIT to the MIT. The network transaction ID is the
ccAuthReply_paymentNetworkTransactionID
field value.
Store the
network transaction ID
, which is the
ccAuthReply_paymentNetworkTransactionID
field value, from the successful response message. You must include the network transaction ID in subsequent MIT authorization requests in order to associate the CIT to the MIT.

Required Fields for Authorizing a Customer-Initiated Recurring Payment with PAN

Simple Order Example: Authorizing a Customer-Initiated Recurring Payment with a PAN

Request
billTo_city=Foster City billTo_country=US
billTo_email=null@cybersource.com
billTo_firstname=John billTo_lastname=Smith billTo_state=CA billTo_postalCode=94404 billTo_street1=201 S. Division St. card_expirationMonth=12 card_expirationYear=2031 card_accountNumber=4111111111111111 ccAuthService_run=true ccAuthService_commerceIndicator=internet merchantId=pa_ctv_sg101 merchantReferenceCode=33557799 purchaseTotals_currency=USD purchaseTotals_grandTotalAmount=100.00 subsequentAuth=false subsequentAuthFirst=true
Response to a Successful Request
additional_processor_response=e1cdcafc-cdbb-4ef7-8788-a1234e844805 request_id=6461515866500167772420 decision=ACCEPT reasonCode=100 merchantReferenceCode=Merchant_REF purchaseTotals_currency=mxn cardCategory=FccAuthService_reconciliationID=ZUDCXJO8KZRFXQJJ ccAuthReply_amount=100.00 ccAuthReply_avsCode=5 ccAuthReply_authorizationCode=570110 ccAuthReply_processorResponse=1 ccAuthReply_authorizedDateTime=2022-03-01T161947Z ccAuthReply_paymentNetworkTransactionID=111222

Merchant-Initiated Recurring Payments with PAN

After the initial recurring payment (CIT), subsequent recurring payments are merchant-initiated transactions (MITs).

Prerequisites

The first transaction in a recurring payment is a customer-initiated transaction (CIT). Before you can perform a subsequent merchant-initiated transaction (MIT), you must store the customer's credentials for later use. Before you can store the customer's credentials, you must get their consent to store their private information. This is also known as establishing a relationship with the customer.

Supported Card Types

These are the supported card types for processing credentialed transactions:
  • American Express
  • Visa
Mastercard uses standing order and subscription payments instead of recurring payments. See Mastercard Standing Order Payments and Mastercard Subscription Payments.

Address Verification Service for Recurring Payments

If your processor supports the Address Verification Service (AVS), then the AVS should verify every authorization request.
Cybersource
recommends checking the AVS's results for the first recurring payment to ensure that the payment information is accurate and to reduce the risk of fraud.
You must determine how to handle the AVS results for any subsequent recurring payments that are not the same as the already-verified billing address information from the first recurring payment.

Replacing Expiration Dates

If the customer's card-on-file is going to expire before a scheduled subsequent recurring payment, your processor may allow you to replace the expiration date with the date 12/2099.
Do not replace a card's expiration date if the card is not expired.
Using this replacement expiration date does not guarantee a successful authorization request. It is your responsibility to know if your processor supports this feature. Not all issuing banks support the 12/2099 expiration date and may decline the authorization request.
To include this date in the authorization request, use these fields and values.
card_expirationMonth
Set to
12
.
card_expirationYear
Set to
99
.

Endpoint

Set the
ccAuthService_run
field to
true
.
Send the request to
https://ics2ws.ic3.com/commerce/1.x/transactionProcessor
.

Required Fields for Authorizing a Merchant-Initiated Recurring Payment

Card-Specific Required Fields for Authorizing Subsequent Recurring Payments

Some card companies require additional information when making authorizations with stored credentials.

Discover

Include the authorization amount from the original transaction in this field:
subsequentAuthOriginalAmount

Mastercard

Mastercard supports subscription and standing order payments instead of recurring payments.

Country-Specific Required Fields for Authorizing Subsequent Recurring Payments

Include these country-specific required fields for a successful merchant-initiated authorization.

India

These fields are required only with Diners Club in India or with an India-issued card, and you are processing payments through
Visa Platform Connect
.
Required only with Diners Club in India or with an India-issued card.
Required only with Diners Club in India or with an India-issued card.
Required only with Diners Club in India or with an India-issued card.
Required only with Diners Club in India or with an India-issued card.
Required only with Diners Club in India or with an India-issued card.
Required only with Diners Club in India or with an India-issued card.

Saudi Arabia

These fields are required only if your business is located in Saudi Arabia and you are processing payments through
Visa Platform Connect
.
recurringAmountType

Simple Order Example: Authorizing a Merchant-Initiated Recurring Payment

Request
billTo_city=Foster City billTo_country=US
billTo_email=null@cybersource.com
billTo_firstname=John billTo_lastname=Smith billTo_state=CA billTo_postalCode=94404 billTo_street1=201 S. Division St. card_expirationMonth=12 card_expirationYear=2031 card_accountNumber=4111111111111111 ccAuthService_commerceIndicator=recurring merchantId=pa_ctv_sg101 merchantReferenceCode=33557799 purchaseTotals_currency=USD purchaseTotals_grandTotalAmount=100.00 subsequentAuth=true subsequentAuthOriginalAmount=100.00 //This field is for Discover only. subsequentAuthReason=7 subsequentAuthStoredCredential=true subsequentAuthTransactionID=23976974322
Response to a Successful Request
additional_processor_response=e1cdcafc-cdbb-4ef7-8788-a1234e844805 request_id=6461515866500167772420 decision=ACCEPT reasonCode=100 merchantReferenceCode=Merchant_REF purchaseTotals_currency=mxn cardCategory=FccAuthService_reconciliationID=ZUDCXJO8KZRFXQJJ ccAuthReply_amount=100.00 ccAuthReply_avsCode=5 ccAuthReply_authorizationCode=570110 ccAuthReply_processorResponse=1 ccAuthReply_authorizedDateTime=2022-03-01T161947Z ccAuthReply_paymentNetworkTransactionID=111222