Saving cards

Learn how to save and update card details to charge customers later.

The Charges API is an older payments API that does not handle bank requests for card authentication. Try our new payments APIs and integrations instead.

When you collect a customer’s payment information, a Stripe token is created. This token can only be used once, but that doesn’t mean you have to request your customer’s card details for every payment.

Stripe provides a Customer object that makes it easy to save this—and other—information for later use. You can use Customer objects for creating subscriptions or future one-off charges.

Saving credit card details for later

To make a card available for later charging, including subscriptions, create a new Customer instead of a Charge by providing their email address and tokenized card information.

Be certain to store the customer ID on your side for later use. You can subsequently charge that customer by passing the customer ID—instead of a card representation—in the charge request.

# Create a Customer:
curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/customers \
  -u {SECRET_KEY}: \
  -d source=tok_mastercard \
  -d email="paying.user@example.com"

# Charge the Customer instead of the card:
curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/charges \
  -u {SECRET_KEY}: \
  -d amount=1000 \
  -d currency=usd \
  -d customer=cus_7sqFSKcBzzYEAf

# YOUR CODE: Save the customer ID and other info in a database for later.

# When it's time to charge the customer again, retrieve the customer ID.
curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/charges \
  -u {SECRET_KEY}: \
  -d amount=1500 \
  -d currency=usd \
  -d customer=cus_7sqFSKcBzzYEAf

Charges using saved card details can be customized in the same ways as one-time charges.

Stripe typically validates card information when it is saved. For more details on when this happens, see Check if a card is valid without a charge. As a result of this process, customers may see a temporary authorization for a small charge in their local currency on their statement. This doesn’t guarantee that any future charges succeed (e.g., the card no longer has sufficient funds, is reported lost or stolen, or if the account is closed). This process also updates the results of any checks, including traditional bank checks by Radar (e.g., CVC or postal code), that may have been performed.

Automatic card updates

Saved payment method details can continue to work even if the physical card has been replaced by the issuing bank. Stripe works with card networks and automatically attempts to update saved card details whenever a customer receives a new card (e.g., replacing an expired card or one that was reported lost or stolen). This allows your customers to continue using your service without interruption and reduces the need for you to collect new card details whenever a card is replaced.

Automatic card updates requires card issuers to participate with the network and provide this information. It is widely supported in the United States, allowing Stripe to automatically update most American Express, Visa, Mastercard, and Discover cards issued there. International support varies from country to country. It is not possible to identify which cards can be automatically updated.

You can use webhooks to be notified before or after a card is automatically updated. Listening for payment_method.updated notifies you of updates to a card that happen via an API call, while payment_method.automatically_updated notifies you of automatic card updates from the network. These events include the card’s new expiration date and last four digits, should you need to update your own records.

Changing the default payment method

Although many of the cards you save can be automatically updated, you should still adopt a process that allows customers to update or replace the cards on file (e.g., a customer wants to change the card being billed or their card cannot be automatically updated). The end of the process requires an update customer call, providing a new token for the source parameter.

Terminal

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/customers/cus_V9T7vofUbZMqpv \
  -u sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc
: \
  -d "source"="tok_visa"

This sets the new card as the default payment method for future payments. It also deletes the previously saved card.

Multiple payment methods

Customers can also store multiple payment methods. The first one saved to a customer is set as the default_source. This is used for subscription payments and whenever a charge request is made with just a customer ID.

You can manage the payment methods saved to a customer (e.g., create or remove cards) and you can update the customer to change default_source to another stored payment method at any time.