Vantiv Automatic Account Updater (AAU)

When you configure your merchant account with Vantiv, you can choose to enroll in the Vantiv Automatic Account Updater (AAU) service. Vantiv Automatic Account Updater (AAU) captures changes in credit card information that has been sent through the gateway.

This topic covers the steps NetForum takes behind the scenes to retrieve updated credit card information from Vantiv’s Automatic Account Updater (AAU). NetForum does these steps automatically, without you performing any configuration in NetForum.

Note: Automatic Account Updater (AAU) is a service offered by Vantiv, contact Vantiv to enroll in AAU and for information on fees associated with AAU.

Vantiv Merchant Options

When you configure your merchant account with Vantiv, you can choose to enroll in the Vantiv Automatic Account Updater (AAU) service. If you enroll in AAU, then you can choose one of two options in your merchant account:

• Reactive
• Proactive

The decision is up to your organization. Once you make your choice, you configure your option through Vantiv. Once Vantiv configures either Proactive or Reactive, NetForum interacts with the provided information as described in the sections below.

Note: With either option, NetForum only receives updated credit card and ACH information from AAU if NetForum attempts to make a payment with the old information. The connection between NetForum and Vantiv is limited. The updates cannot automatically flow into NetForum.

Reactive

If you choose Reactive, Vantiv waits for a decline before it seeks AAU. The decline reason has to be related to a potential account change. For instance, Vantiv does not try an update if the account is active, but the decline reason is insufficient funds. Be aware that it can take a couple of days before any updated information comes back to Vantiv.

The next time NetForum attempts another payment with the out-dated card information, two things happen:

• The transaction has a better chance of success because Vantiv has updated the token’s card information in Vantiv’s vault.
• Vantiv sends NetForum the updated information about that card. NetForum will then update the information for that token.

 

Proactive

If you choose Proactive, Vantiv seeks AAU periodically for all the credit cards saved in your vault. You must configure the interval of time in your Vantiv merchant account, not in NetForum. For example, you might choose to request AAU information for each card in your vault every 20 days following the last transaction on that card through Vantiv.

When NetForum attempts a transaction, Vantiv sends NetForum any updated information. NetForum then updates the account information for that token. With Proactive, even if NetForum has outdated information, the actual card data held in the vault at Vantiv is updated (if possible) so any payment attempts for that token are processed with the most current information. When NetForum attempts a payment, Vantiv passes the updated card information to NetForum. NetForum then updates the credit card information for the token.