The success of card on file and recurring billing programs depends upon the validity of your tokens. Tokens can be declined at the time of checkout or billing if the underlying card information has expired or changed. Account Updater helps you keep tokens up to date so that you can improve authorization success rates. When a customer has provided you their card information to keep on file, or has registered for a subscription, Account Updater can automatically update their card if their card number or expiration date changes. The customer does not have to remember to contact you and provide you this information. Account Updater helps your business reduce failed transactions.

If you manage your Account Updater service through your Business Advantage 360 online banking Merchant Services account, Account Updater will run a token harvest to update your cards on file. Token harvest automatically updates expired tokens monthly on the harvest date that you’ve selected. 

NOTE:
Token Harvest updates American Express tokens on a daily basis.

Account Updater will automatically update all of your expired or changed tokens with the latest card data. If a customer has closed their account entirely, their account will be identified on a report so you can contact them for new billing information. If you use Recurring Billing (and use the same billing date for all your plans), then you can set your Account Updater harvest date three to five days prior to the date your recurring billing plan processes, in order to be sure you are processing with the most up-to-date card information.

Account Updater will also provide downloadable reports that you can access within Business Advantage 360 online banking Merchant Services account. These reports are also called response files. In certain cases, the report will prompt you to contact a customer for updated billing information. These reports are generated monthly for Visa and Mastercard, and daily for American Express. More information about interpreting the report is included in the Account Updater User Guide.

NOTE: 
API Integration - If you plan to integrate and manage Account Updater through REST API, see the Account Updater Developer Guide.

Account Updater Implementation Process

Here is a summary of the Account Updater implementation process:

1. Sign up for Account Updater: Account Updater can be enabled with the establishment of your Merchant Account, or you may add Account Updater to your existing Merchant Account by contacting your Merchant Consultant.
2. Decide on a Harvest Date: When you sign up for Account Updater, you will tell your Merchant Consultant which day of the month you would like for Account Updater to harvest and send your tokens to the networks for updating. This day is typically three to five business days prior to a monthly recurring billing day. It can be days 01-28 of the month. See Account Updater FAQ for more information.
3. Welcome Call: Our Activations specialists will reach out to you after you have completed the e-sign contract process. They will schedule a Training Call with you.
4. Create Customer Tokens and Billing Tokens: You can begin to create your vault of customer tokens and billing tokens while you wait for the card brand enrollment process to be completed; however, it’s important to remember the overall implementation timeline. In most cases, Account Updater will not be able to update your tokens until the month after you build them. 
   Example: If you sign up for Account Updater on Oct 1 and select a harvest date as the fifth day of the month, you may be able to build your customer tokens and billing tokens by Oct 3 – 4, but your Account Updater registration will not be complete until mid-October. As such, your tokens will not be updated until your November harvest date.
5. Card Brand Enrollment: We will submit enrollment forms on your behalf to both Mastercard and Visa. The enrollment process takes 12-14 business days. 
6. Registration and Configuration: The payment networks will return your Account Updater registration forms to Bank of America, and we will complete them. We will then configure your account.
7. Training Call and Account Updater set up: After your card brand enrollment is complete, you will have your Training Call with your Activations specialist. We will explain the Account Updater service in detail and point you to helpful materials on the Merchant Help Center. You will then reference this User Guide to implement the service.
8. Production: At that point, you will be able to go into production with your Account Updater. You can refer to this User Guide for information on how to manage Account Updater requests and responses.

Terms of Use

Refer to your Merchant Agreement Program Guide for terms of use for Account Updater. Please note the below general terms provided as of the date of this guide:

By using the Account Updater service, you agree to comply with the Visa U.S.A. Operating Regulations, Visa Account Updater Terms of Use, Mastercard rules and regulations, American Express rules and regulations, and all other applicable rules and regulations issued by any card association.

In addition, you must:

• Request an update for every participating Visa account in your customer database at least:
  • Once every 180 calendar days if you bill daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or bi-annually.
  • Once every 365 calendar days if you bill annually.
• Submit inquiries only for those accounts with which you have an ongoing customer relationship.
• Update your customer account database within five business days of receiving an update.
• Ensure that all update information you receive is properly, completely, and accurately incorporated into your data store for use in future transactions.
• Correct erroneous account information within five business days of receipt of error notifications.

You may not:

• Request updates on accounts that have returned a response of Contact Card Holder (CCH). You must review your response file for CCH responses and take appropriate action such as removing the customer record from your billing cycle until you have contacted the cardholder.
• Submit update inquiries on behalf of any other entity unless you have enrolled in Account Updater as a billing aggregator.