Saved Payment Methods for Users
Melisa Smith avatar
Written by Melisa Smith
Updated over a week ago

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During frontend checkout on ecommerce, events, Member Compass invoice payment or new member registration, users have the option to save payment methods for future payments when entering their credit card or ACH information* (ACH is for QuickBooks Payments users only).

This makes your member's experience checking out on the site super smooth, quick, and simple!

Once a payment method is saved to their account, it will then be visible to select as a payment option on all future checkouts.

Note: ACH is only available for customers using the QuickBooks Payments payment processor.


Saving Payment Methods

Note: When the first payment method is saved to their account, it becomes the default payment method for future checkouts. This will remain as their default selection unless they manually update it via their Member Compass (see "Managing Saved Credit Cards" section below).

Scenario 1:

If a user is checking out on the site and does NOT yet have any saved credit cards, their payment section will look similar to this (Notice the "Save Card for Future Payments" checkbox at the bottom). This process is similar when ACH is selected as well.

Scenario 2:

If a user does have a saved payment method, their payment sections will look similar to this depending on if they are on credit/debit or ACH. They can select the payment method they want to use, or add a new payment (Card or ACH) at the bottom, which will also give them the ability to save that payment method.

As long as you haven't disabled invoicing for the particular section the user is checking out, they will also be able to select the "Invoice" option as a payment method.


Managing Saved Payment Methods

Once a user has saved a payment method to their account, they can navigate to their Member Compass to manage their cards and bank info.

Within the Payment Methods section, the user will see basic information for identification (name on card/account, last 4 digits, and expiration dates) of their current saved credit cards and ACH.

From here, they can add new saved payment methods, delete existing ones, or switch their default payment. (Note: If they have an existing auto-renewing subscription, they will not be able to delete all of their saved payments)

A Note About Changing Payment Processors:

  • Please note: Though an unlikely scenario, if you ever consider switching from Stripe to QuickBook Payments, or vice versa, this would remove all saved credit cards on your site, since the cards are stored within the payment processor.

  • Switching to Stripe will remove the ACH functionality.


Subscription Renewals

Saved payments also play a role when a user purchases a subscription on your website. Here is the info you need to know:

  • Auto-renewing subscriptions will run automatically based on the default payment on the account.

  • When users purchases a new subscription, they must:

    • A) Choose an existing saved payment method
      - OR -

    • B) If adding a new card (or ACH), they must save the payment info to their account.

  • Admins may place subscription orders that are invoiced, or if paid by credit card/ACH is selected, note that it does not auto-renew.

  • For these reasons, the purchase needs to be tracked to a record in the database. Therefore, guest purchases of subscriptions are not allowed.


Frequently Asked Questions

  • Can admins save payment methods to a member's record or manage a user's cards or bank connections?

    • No, saved credit cards and bank details are for frontend users only. For security purposes (not only for the user, but protection for you as an admin as well), this is something that needs to be done by the user.

      Admins can still process one-time credit card and ACH payments from the backend, but cannot save a payment method for future purchases on a user's behalf OR see credit cards or bank details that a user has saved. This helps prevent chargebacks and fraud claims, from someone saying that a charge was unauthorized by them.

  • Is Novi PCI Compliant?

    • It's important to note with this question that Novi is not the system storing the credit card information or actually processing the payments. Payment information is never stored directly through Novi. QuickBooks Payments and Stripe store the complete credit card and bank information within their systems, separate from Novi. These external third-party processors are fully PCI Compliant.

    • More information: In accordance with QuickBooks’ specifications and industry best practices, Novi exchanges card information to a token before any information reaches our server. This means that while Novi facilitates the transaction, protected credit card and ACH data is never stored on our servers. All protected payment data is securely passed directly to QuickBooks Payments or Stripe where it is processed and stored. At no time does Novi transmit protected card data back to the association, the Novi-provided website, or any other party beyond what is described above.

  • Can all logged-in users save payment methods, or only members?

    • Anyone with a login can save a payment method to their account, regardless of membership status.

  • Can people and companies save payment methods?

    • Saved payment methods are only applicable to individual people, not companies as a whole. This prevents, for example, John Smith from using his company's credit card without having access to it. That being said, multiple people can have the same card or bank info saved to their account.

  • Can "family members" share a saved payment method?

    • See answer above - while they can't "share" a payment method saved on someone else's record, they can save the same card to their own account.

  • Who can use ACH as a payment method?

    • ACH is only available for customers using the QuickBooks Payments processor (not Stripe).

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