For businesses that bill the same customers repeatedly using a stored credit card number, such as subscription businesses, a major challenge is handling cards that decline because the customer replaced his/her old card with a new one.  Since card replacements happen pretty frequently (every time a card is lost or stolen), the operational headache of contacting the customer and asking for the new card number can be pretty large.

Some credit card processors support a new feature from Mastercard called Mastercard Automated Billing Updater.  With Mastercard Automated Billing Updater, all transactions attempted with cards that have been replaced return a result that includes the new card number, which can be stored for future use. Visa has an equivalent feature called Visa Account Updater.

If you are looking for a credit card processor that supports Mastercard Automated Billing Updater, use FeeFighters.