Account Updater

Hyperswitch Account Updater helps keep your customers’ saved cards up to date when a card expires, is replaced, or is reissued. It connects to our Account Updater service, which supports Visa and Mastercard, to check for changes to the card number, expiry, or account status.

For eligible merchant-initiated payments, Hyperswitch checks the saved card before attempting authorization. When updated card details are available, it saves them under the same payment method ID. Your integration can continue using the reference it already holds, without asking the customer to enter the replacement card.

What does Account Updater handle?

For example, a customer saves a card for a subscription. Their bank later issues a replacement with a new expiry date. Before the next eligible subscription payment, Hyperswitch checks for an update, saves the replacement details, and makes them available to the payment flow.

Account Updater can:

• Refresh the card number and expiry when updated details are returned.

• Mark a saved payment method inactive when the service reports that the account is closed.

• Keep the existing card unchanged when there is no actionable update.

Throughout this page, active, inactive, new, and redacted describe the saved payment method, not the payment transaction. Updating a card does not itself authorize a payment or guarantee that the issuer will approve it.

How does it work?

What happens for each result?

Result from Account Updater	What Hyperswitch does	Saved payment method status
Account updated	Saves the returned card number and expiry under the existing payment method ID.	Replacement becomes active after the old card is retired.
Expiry updated	Saves the returned card details with the updated expiry under the existing ID.	Replacement becomes active after the old card is retired.
Account closed	Marks the current saved method unavailable for subsequent retrievals. This action does not delete the card from the vault.	Current method becomes inactive.
No change	Keeps the existing card.	Remains active.
Not found	Keeps the existing card; absence of an update is not treated as account closure.	Remains active.
Contact issuer	Keeps the existing card. Hyperswitch does not automatically contact the issuer or deactivate the method.	Remains active.
Unspecified result	Keeps the existing card.	Remains active.
Reported update matches the stored card	Detects that it already holds the same card details and skips the replacement.	Remains active.

Account Updater automatically checks saved cards for merchant-initiated payments made through the Payments API when confirm: true, off_session: true, and recurring_details.type: "payment_method_id". The payment method ID in recurring_details must match the saved payment method being retrieved.

MITs using mandate_id, a processor payment token, or a network transaction ID supplied with card, network token, wallet, or limited card data do not trigger an automatic Account Updater check.

FAQs

Does my payment method ID change when the card changes? No. Hyperswitch keeps the ID and replaces the card details behind it.

Does “not found” mean the card is invalid? No. It means the service did not return an update for that card. Hyperswitch retains the saved details and status; payment authorization remains a separate decision.

Will an inactive card become active on the next refresh? No. Inactive methods are rejected before refresh. Activation during Account Updater applies to a newly stored replacement for an eligible active card.

Are processor tokens and mandates refreshed too? This flow refreshes the saved card. It does not update processor tokens or recreate processor mandates; connector mandate details are not copied to the replacement record. Existing network-token data is carried forward without being refreshed by Account Updater.