Getting Started with Card on File Data Inquiry

Card-On-File Data Inquiry

Getting Started with Card-On-File Data Inquiry

About Card-On-File Data Inquiry.

Consumers are storing their card credentials at more online retailers and service providers, but often lack visibility into which merchants have their card information and where the card information needs to be updated, when the card is reissued.

Things to Know

A suite of technologies that bundles both new and existing Visa capabilities that allow a consumer to add, view and manage their Visa card through their Issuer’s online and mobile channels.

Transactions are either initiated by a consumer, or by a merchant based on the instructions given to them by the consumer. Based on those instructions, it is possible for a merchant to initiate a transaction without consumer action.

There are two classes of transactions:

  1. Consumer-Initiated Transactions (CIT): A consumer-initiated transaction is a transaction where the consumer is present and provides their payment credentials. This can be through a terminal in-store, or online through a checkout experience. A consumer-initiated transaction contains proof that the cardholder was involved in the transaction. The proof may be through a number of different methods such as track data, chip data with cryptograms, cardholder verification methods, and online through the presence of Card Verification Value 2 (CVV2) or Verified by Visa (VBV) authentication data. The consumer-initiated transaction is the proof that the consumer and merchant entered into a relationship and that the payment credential presented was in fact a validly presented payment instrument.
  2. Merchant-Initiated Transactions (MIT): A merchant-initiated transaction is a transaction that relates to a previous consumer-initiated transaction, but it is conducted without the consumer present and without any additional cardholder validation performed. In all cases, a merchant-initiated transaction must refer to a consumer’s original interaction where a consumer and merchant have entered into an agreement for a recurring product or service or an automated billing or unscheduled transactions etc.

There are many different kinds of merchant-initiated transactions. Examples include:

Industry Specific Business Practices:

Standing Instructions for the Initial Consumer Initiated Transaction

Availability

The following table lists the regional availability for Card-On-File Data Inquiry. To view availability of all products, refer to the Availability Matrix.

North America Asia-Pacific Europe CEMEA LAC Notes

KEY

Roles and Responsibilities

The following section outlines the roles and responsibilities for Visa and participating issuers regarding the API usage.

Visa

While Visa maintains sole discretion to offer and maintain the Visa Developer Platform, COF data API and all other products and services described herein, Visa presently intends to use reasonable efforts to—

Issuers

All participating issuers must—

API Description

Data elements shared: