Businesses that bill customers on a recurring basis have several challenges.  One challenge is handling the accounts of customers who replaced their credit card with a new one (often because the card was lost or stolen).  If the business bills to the old credit card number, the card will be declined and you will either lose the customer or have to spend time and money to contact him/her for new payment information.

Visa does have a service where a business can submit all its customer card numbers and get back a new card number if the card number has been changed – it’s called Visa Account Updater.

To use Visa Account Updater, both your merchant account and gateway need to support the service.  Use FeeFighters to find a Merchant Account Provider that will allow you to use Visa Account Updater

Mastercard has an equivalent called Mastercard Automated Billing Updater.