Saved cards and the update-card link

Renewals and automatic collection charge a card the customer saved earlier. This page covers how a card gets on file, which one is used, and the two things built around that card: a shareable link for the customer to update it themselves, and a notification when it changes.

How a card gets saved

Every path lands in the same place, so it does not matter which one was used:

• A paid checkout. The card that paid the first invoice is stored for renewals as part of the same payment.
• A free trial or a future start. Nothing is due, so the card is saved through the gateway's zero-charge setup flow instead. No charge, same vault.
• The customer's update-card link. See below.
• You, in the dashboard. The customer page has an "add a card" action that uses the gateway's own secure field; the card number never touches yRecurring.

Whichever path saved it, the newest card becomes the customer's default, the one renewals charge. If a dunning run was waiting on a working card, saving one wakes it up.

The update-card link

Each customer has a private update-card page, reachable from a link on their customer page (the "Update-card link" panel). Send it when a card has expired or a payment keeps failing: the customer opens it with no account and no password, enters the new card into the gateway's own form, and is done. The page saves a card and nothing else; it never charges.

The panel shows whether the link has been opened, how many times, and when. Read that as opens, not proof the customer acted: mail scanners fetch links automatically. Regenerate replaces the link and kills the old one immediately, which is what you want if a link went to the wrong person; the fresh link starts with a clean open count.

The card-change email

Anyone holding the update-card link can change the card behind a subscription. That is the point of a hosted link, and it is also why the customer is told when it happens: replacing the card on file sends them an email naming the new card, with a link to put the right one back if it was not them.

Two saves deliberately send nothing:

• The first card ever. A signup's own card next to a "your card was updated" notice reads as an alarm about nothing.
• Re-saving the same card. Nothing changed, so there is nothing to say.

The wording is editable under Settings, then Templates, like every other notification.