Account updater like Stripe, Braintree, and others have

[shoelessjoe]

Hi there -- has anyone found a way to automatically update recurring billing subscriptions on Authorize.net? Visa has this program http://usa.visa.com/merchants/grow-your-business/processing-solutions/account-updater.jsp and Mastercard has this program http://www.mastercard.us/merchants/automatic-billing.html. 

The idea is basically that cards that would fail because a new card has been issued, expiration, etc. get automatically updated so they work correctly.

We're currently losing 10%+ of our subscriptions each month and need to figure out how to use account updater. I know Stripe, Braintree, Chase, et al offer this, but we haven't been able to find it within Authorize. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[RichardH]

Hello @shoelessjoe 

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@shoelessjoe wrote:

Hi there -- has anyone found a way to automatically update recurring billing subscriptions on Authorize.net? 

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Currently there isn't an account updater service for Authorize.Net using the Visa and MC tools you mention.  However, we do have an open enhancement request for similar functionality.

Are you using Automated Recurring Billing (ARB)?

Richard

[shoelessjoe]

@RichardH -- yes, we're using ARB. The number of cards that fail each month as a result of not having account updater in place is massive. And it really makes Authorize.net not competitive compared with those who offer it. If there's one feature that can increase ARB revenue by 5-15% and all your competitors have it but you don't, that's a significant problem. What is the plan around rolling this out?

[RichardH]

We recently added a new ARBGetSubscriptionLIstRequest API method to get a list of subscriptions with cards expiring this month.  This would allow you to proactively contact those customers to update their card details to avoid any disruption in service.  See the full details in the ARB XML Guide.

ARBGetSubscriptionListRequest

Element	Description	Format
searchType	Required.  cardExpiringThisMonth subscriptionActive subscriptionInactive subscriptionExpiringThisMonth
sorting	Contains sorting information.
orderBy	Order of transactions in response: id name status createTimeStampUTC lastName firstName accountNumber (ordered by last 4 digits only) amount pastOccurences
orderDescending	true, false, 1 or 0.	Boolean
paging	Contains information about list pages.
limit	1-1000.  The number of subscriptions per page.
offset	1-100000.  The number of pages.

[shoelessjoe]

Thanks, Richard. We'll take a look. What's the plan with account updater? When should we expect that to go into production?

[shoelessjoe]

@RichardH any word on when we should expect account updater to go into production?

For your recurring billing customers, it's hard to imagine any more important feature that could have a more immediate impact on revenue.

Thanks!

[RichardH]

Unfortunately I don't have any information about a potential release date.

My best suggestion is to subscribe to this thread as we'll provide updates here if we get more information.

To subscribe, click Topic Options at the top of this thread and then select Subscribe. You'll then receive an email once anyone replies to your post.

Thanks,

Richard

[shoelessjoe]

@RichardH thanks. I was told by support to raise this issue on this forum -- that this was the best way to get the attention of Authorize product managers and developers. 

It sounds like this is not actively being developed, which is surprising given the potential benefits it has for your clients. It's hard to imagine anything that would serve ARB customers better than getting up to 10% of their failing subscriptions to work successfully.

Can you please clarify how it's possible that this isn't a top priority? (Also considering that your competitors now offer it.) 

Thanks.

[RichardH]

As I mentioned before, if you are using ARB then you can use the ARBGetSubscriptionList to obtain a list of profiles that will expire and take the appropriate action.

For an account updater feature, I can confirm that its one of many features requested by merchants on our priority list. However, we don't have any details for a delivery date .  If you subscribe to this thread, you will be notified when there is an update.  At this time, that is the best information I can provide.

Richard

[shoelessjoe]

@RichardH, thanks. I'm less concerned about cards that expire than those that are being canceled by credit card companies because of situations like the one at Target. 

Can you give me a sense of other ARB development that's going on right now that's considered to be greater priority than something that could increase your customers' revenue by 10%? 

As we consider whether to continue with Authorize, it would be helpful to know whether this huge problem in the credit card world is being taken seriously.

Thanks!