What is Visa Account Updater and How Does it Work? How Visa Account Updater helps ensure that your business gets paid According to some estimates, more than 50 percent of credit card holders will change their information associated with their credit cards any given year. This statistic is a nightmare for many merchants, especially those who keep customers’ credit cards on file to charge on a recurring basis. Submitting out-of-date card information will lead to declined authorization, an interruption in the customer’s services, and a call or email from billing to try to get the new credit card information to submit for payment again. This is not only a hassle for the business, it can annoy the customer and lead them to cease doing business with that company. Enter Visa Account Updater, Visa’s solution for merchants facing this dilemma. Visa Account Updater Visa Account Updater (VAU) is a program created by Visa to help supply merchants with the most up to date credit card account information of their customers. Every other day, or in some cases every day, Visa card issuers provide Visa with changes that have been made to expiration dates and other card account information. Visa keeps the most up to date information on file to give to merchants who are enrolled in their program. How VAU Works After you have decided to use VAU, the first step is to select an acquiring bank that is VAU certified, if the acquiring bank you already use isn’t certified. Comparing the set-up fees and transaction fees charged by acquirers will help you choose what bank to use. Then, you will enroll in VAU through your acquiring bank. When you have payments that you are about to process for a cardholder that is on file, you will send the credit card information that you have to VAU, through your acquirer. VAU will compare that information to what they have in their database and will send you any updated information, which can then be used to update the customer’s billing information. Benefits of Using Visa Account Updater The benefits of using the visa account updater tend to far outweigh the set up and transaction fees that you will pay (this of course depends on the amount and value of transactions you process automatically, and will require some basic math). VAU can help greatly reduce authorization declines that happened because of incorrect information. Fewer authorization declines leads to more approved transactions and more sales. VAU also saves you from having to contact the customer and use valuable time and resources getting them to update their card information or having your customer service or collection team do it for them. VAU helps you retain your customers and provide them with greater customer satisfaction. Clarity Can Help At Clarity, we understand the difficulties businesses face when dealing with credit cards. From declined authorization to expired credit cards, charging your customers for your products and services isn’t as effortless as many expect it to be. Our team of experts has helped many of our clients set up payment gateways and billing systems that help make handling payments much easier. To find out more about Visa Account Updater or to speak with an expert about a billing system solution, call or click to contact us today!