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Education

Why does my business need an

automatic account updater?

• It’s time-consuming: Reaching out to individual
customers to update payment information can take
a lot of time, especially for merchants and other
businesses with a large customer base and limited
staff.

• It’s costly: In addition to the time it takes to manu-
ally update account information, hiring additional
staff to help with the process is costly. Should exist-
ing staff handle the updates, they won't be able to
work on other essential business tasks. And if a cus-
tomer's payment can't be processed due to outdated
account information, a business may lose out on that
revenue altogether.
By Nicholas Cucci • It’s inconvenient for customers: If customers re-
FluidPay ceive notice to update their card on file, they’ll likely
need to take time out of their day to provide the up-
hen it comes to running a business, secu- dated information. Additionally, failure to promptly
rity and efficiency are two essential factors. update the information can lead to interruptions in
In today’s digital age, customers expect the services they expect to receive. This can be frus-
W merchants to offer secure and convenient trating and inconvenient, which may cause them to
payment options that allow them to make their purchases take their business elsewhere.
with a few simple clicks. • It’s error-prone: Manually updating customer ac-
count information can lead to errors, such as acci-
Many business owners allow customers to store their dentally inputting credit card information incor-
payment details securely on file. This makes processing rectly. This can be costly for merchants and may
future sales and recurring bills easy for both parties, as lead to chargebacks or declined transactions—fur-
the credit card details are already saved. In fact, according ther aggravating customers and hurting revenue.
to a Mastercard report titled Credential on File: The Digital
Commerce Growth Engine, 76 percent of consumers agree The solution: an account updater
that using a saved card makes online or in-app payments
much more efficient. A card account updater is a service that automatically
updates customers' credit card information in the event
Expired customer payment info hurts business of a change. This means customers won't have to be
asked to update their account information manually, and
While storing account information may seem ideal, it can merchants can be confident their payment details are
pose risks. For example, if a customer’s credit card expires always up to date.
or is canceled, the business must manually reach out to
them to update their payment information in order to An automated account updater works by periodically
process the transaction. Failure to reach them can result checking the credit card issuer’s database for changes
in losing a sale or, worse, the customer’s business entirely. to your customers' account information. If a change
is detected, the account information will be updated
According to the Mastercard report cited above, 56 percent automatically, preventing interruptions in recurring
of consumers have replaced their default card in the last transactions.
year due to card expirations, loss and fraud. Unfortunately,
this creates headaches for business owners who rely on This can prevent chargebacks, failed payments and
recurring payments to continue providing their products service disruptions by ensuring customers' account
and services.
information is always current. Future transactions can be
Risks of manually updating processed without interruptions, saving merchants time
and money while providing a more seamless experience
Risks are associated with manually updating customer for customers.
account information, as follows:
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