Card on file used for payment plan, but customer can unlink their card!

focusedpain — Wed, 16 Feb 2022 19:42:55 GMT

Hi, we use Square in our medical practice when payment is due at time of service. For certain therapy programs we like to offer a payment plan option by utilizing the card on file feature with patient authorization - however, patients receive emailed receipts with the option to unlink their stored card which kind of defeats the purpose. Is there a different function we should be using? We need to have control over adding and deleting stored credit card info. Your help is greatly appreciated!

Re: Card on file used for payment plan, but customer can unlink their card!

londontea — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 15:03:32 GMT

Unfortunately that's a legal requirement. Credit card regulations in the US require that cardholders can revoke authorization for charging their card at any time. It wasn't until I began running a business that I realized just how many protections credit card holders are given. As a consumer I appreciate it, but as a business owner it's very annoying to have customers remove their card on file or dispute a payment.

I'm not a lawyer and this is definitely not legal advice: You could get a customer to sign a contract stating that their card will be charged $X for Y months, but then you'd have to write down their card info and keep it securely in a safe or locked file cabinet, then manually enter the card number whenever you want to charge them. The customer could still dispute a payment, and you'd probably wind up going to court because (in my experience) banks don't care about contracts when it comes to disputes.

I do something like that for big parties where I could be on the hook for hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars if the party cancels at the last minute. It's a pain to do, which is why I don't do it for smaller parties. In those cases if I get an email that a customer has unlinked their card then I immediately contact them to get it resolved.

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Card on file used for payment plan, but customer can unlink their card!

Re: Card on file used for payment plan, but customer can unlink their card!