---
title: Saved cards and the update-card link
description: How a customer's card gets on file, which card is charged, the shareable update-card link, and the email a card change sends.
domain: payment
status: shipped
visibility: public
last_verified: 2026-08-15
order: 17
---
Renewals and [automatic collection](/guide/payments/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](/guide/dunning/how-dunning-works) 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.