Card on File + No-show Protection + Appointments - how do they work together?

[HollyA]

Hi im in the salon & spa industry & we deal with no-shows quite often & currently use square invoice to collect no-show fees. however clients can choose not to pay so its really not the best way to protect your business against no-shows. I am interested in the Card on File feature but i am wondering about gratuity and no-show protection 

The title of this post has been edited from the original: "Card on file" for no-show protection?

[#2]

Hi there @helenabrooke78 and @RMConsultingLLC 👋 Thanks for reaching out to us here on the Seller Community. I consulted with our Appointments Team to help answer your questions. Here's the information they've provided me:
 

With Square Appointments, your client has the option to add a Card on File for future appointments, as well as providing their card information for No-Show Protection. While these options are similar, it’s important to understand the differences between the two.

Card on File: This is an optional selection that your client can make when booking an appointment that will allow them to save their card for future purchases. Card on File saves the card to the customer’s profile in your Customer Directory and allows you to charge it whenever you want. This is always optional to the customer and they can unlink their card at any time.

No-Show Protection: This requires clients to provide the card information to book appointments so that you can determine whether or not to charge them based on your cancellation policy. Card information provided through No-Show Protection can only be used for cancellations up to 14 days after the appointment and isn’t applicable on separate purchases or appointments.

A client can not remove the card from No-Show Protection, but they can, however, remove their Card on File from the Customer Directory.

For more information on No-Show Protection, please visit this section of our Support Center.

I hope this information is helpful but please do let us know if you have any additional questions.
 

[Tom · Accepted solution]

Hey @HollyA, thanks for bringing this up!

My best suggestion for no-shows is to go with Square Appointments and set up a cancellation policy. When you create your cancellation policy, you can require that a credit card be used to book online and set the expectation that your customer will be charged a cancelation fee if they do not show up.

Check out our Support Center for specifics, and let us know if you have any other questions! Hope this helps. 🙂

[Valentina · Accepted solution]

I wanted to drop into this thread to clarify a bit more! ✨ 

No-show Protection and Card on File are different features. A client does have the option to remove a Card on Fiile for future purchases, which is typically done when the appointment is booked and they select the Card on Fiile opt-in check box. However, a card cannot be removed from an appointment, as it is saved to that specific appointment for no-show protection.

We store the information we need to charge the card for a no-show fee with the appointment details, not a direct reference to the Card on File, exactly for this reason. Even if a client unlinks a card, we still have the information on hand in order for you to charge a no-show fee to that card if necessary.

You may think that your client unlinked their no-show card because you are unable to charge the no-show fee. What is most likely happening here is that you have selected Fee for each service within the Cancellation Fee settings section, and never assigned a cancellation fee to the particular service being booked. In this case, the booking system will not ask for a credit card:

[_Violet · Accepted solution]

Hi there @helenabrooke78 and @RMConsultingLLC 👋 Thanks for reaching out to us here on the Seller Community. I consulted with our Appointments Team to help answer your questions. Here's the information they've provided me:
 

With Square Appointments, your client has the option to add a Card on File for future appointments, as well as providing their card information for No-Show Protection. While these options are similar, it’s important to understand the differences between the two.

Card on File: This is an optional selection that your client can make when booking an appointment that will allow them to save their card for future purchases. Card on File saves the card to the customer’s profile in your Customer Directory and allows you to charge it whenever you want. This is always optional to the customer and they can unlink their card at any time.

No-Show Protection: This requires clients to provide the card information to book appointments so that you can determine whether or not to charge them based on your cancellation policy. Card information provided through No-Show Protection can only be used for cancellations up to 14 days after the appointment and isn’t applicable on separate purchases or appointments.

A client can not remove the card from No-Show Protection, but they can, however, remove their Card on File from the Customer Directory.

For more information on No-Show Protection, please visit this section of our Support Center.

I hope this information is helpful but please do let us know if you have any additional questions.
 

[alessamull]

yes! A LOT!

[Gasper]

Hello, is there a way I can keep customers from removing the card they have on file? 

[ashc]

Hey @Gasper and welcome to the Community!

I moved your post here for the answer and so you can input your feedback about this since it looks like you cannot stop them from removing their card. 

[Magnis]

Hello,

The only real solution here is to book the services prepaid OR book it as a retail booking but prepay a deposit/cancellation policy. If your cancellation policy is the full amount you really should be prepaying these. The only reason people dont fully pay for reservations is because its flexible in cancellation or pay an excessive amount over for a prepaid but cancellable 

I wasnt going to respond to this post until something sorta alarmed me that may be in violation of eligibility to accept Visa, M/C, and Amex as SQUARE  as they all hold the same T/E (Travel and entertainment) rules regarding ancillary charges or damages up to the same basic point. I will preface I spent 4 year I a Fraud and Disputes Managament role (Just below legal arbitration in the process) and 3 years as a everything travel agent. Now ancillary charges from a Visa Compliance Case perspective were removed as a violation when reason codes disputes were eliminated and replaced with the shorter life cycle dispute process (left banking 2 days prior to the swap I can't remember what it's called now) But for damages where the merchant is T/E classified either domestically and the damage policy was acknowledged, usually done by check in jnvoice or if the merchant is Visa Europe . The merchant is entitled to charge the card for the damages without recourse. Now I'm guessing due to how massive the travel industry is and all its players there aren't a whole lot of square using T/E merchants. Especially those using it for Cars and Hotels the primary business for these occurances. And if they do they may a back end bookkeeper or accountant that reconciles the card information elsewhere on check in AND the reservations are likely prepaid. This creates 3 problems/questions to think on beyond "feedback" does every fully integratable solution with square keep the card coded where it's at "on file" (maybe we got a rogue one) and secondly since the point of sale and all formats square uses beyond its internal data fail to disclose Merhcant Category Codes MCC or ISO codes for Amex if a consumer were to dispute that transaction if  they had some other issue with a stay and incidentally didnt charge for damages, the Visa issuing bank would file compliance, it would be a loss against square (Visa takes a bit to enforce down hard several years after major changes they went through so prolly no fines). M/C would rule against the customer for services rendered but charge Square hefty fines for violation of accepting payment as T/E merchant. And Amex has been known to revoke priviledge  to be accepted as payment outright on first precedent alone and they would default to the consumer in addition. The last problem this brings up is I'm not sure how the business owner has her services setup but a solution would be to use a MCC/ISO classification or tagging AND require a checkbox similar to item/service is taxable when creating it asking if it a T/E service which would then inform the customer upon removal of thier card that they can still be billed in accordance with cancellation policy or damages after the fact (if the box was checked) you'd either have to back office this to square somewhere decoded card number for all T/E tagged transactions or stat the onus is on the business owner for failure to classify it as such. That's it rant done. I'd triple check that myself. It could have changed in the 2 years I've been out of banking but yeah...

[isabelle]

Hey @Magnis-

Thanks for the time and effort you put into your post. I see the point you're making here, and the extra background knowledge you provided will be beneficial to anyone interested in card on file regulations. 

As a workaround, sellers who have concerns about cards being unlinked prior to payment can look into having credit card authorization forms and contracts that you can send via PDF after a client/customer books their appointment. 

That way if they unlink their card, you would have their card information on paper and approval to charge it since they'd have to sign it stating their approval. I'd be interested to see what your thoughts are on this. Thanks again for your time. 

[Magnis]

Appreciate someone checking that. I did review the Regs out of my own curiosity for a few other things. T/E merchants still need to be able to have the card on file.

For these authorization forms/waivers since Square does not want them attached to the customer profile is there a recommended digital location we can secure these types of docs?

[isabelle]

Hey @Magnis-

Thanks for your reply.

We do not have a suggested digital location to store secure documents such as these. That would be up to the business owner. Let me know if you have any questions about this! 

[SkyeSM]

So my business using the no-show protection for all appointments. Although as of lately I have noticed that several of my new clients made appointment online and it did not require a credit card to secure their appointment?! I had a 3hr scheduled service no-show and no way of charging them! 

I went back in and made sure that all my settings are correct, they are. I then looked at all the upcoming appointments that are scheduled online, and only about half of them have a card connected to them for this protection.

Anyone else have this issue or can help me? Trying to get an answer from Square CS has been impossible!

[Kassi_]

Hey there, @SkyeSM - 

Welcome to the Community. 

There are a couple of things that could be a couple of different things. Do you have the fee per service for the No-Show Protection or overall? A service could have been missed. 

Or are you using Google Reserve for the Appointments. If so, that feature doesn't require a card. 

 If this doesn't do the trick - I can take a deeper look. I will keep an eye out for your reply👀. 

[SkyeSM]

I had to go through all of my services and update them all with a $$ fee. It seems to be working now. Just sucks because I did not know that I needed to do that. There for I have multiple clients scheduled without any protection or ability to charge them if they decide to cancel late or no show me. 
thank goodness I don’t have this problem regularly but was able to catch it now. 😓

[malcolmaw]

I turned the fake-it-filter via square appointments, during the covid-era, so people stop asking if my business is failing and to give me some time to work on other areas of the business.

However, it does not appear to be working when I test booking from google search/my square site. I am not logged in to square when I try to test.

Anyone have any insight about what could be wrong here?

Thanks for the time.

[AshleyK]

Hey @malcolmaw I've merged your post with an existing thread that will help answer your question. Thank you!

[kamilash]

Same here! This needs to be resolved asap. my business does not feel protected. I cannot charge a no show fee. Appointments shouldn't be booked without the CC on file! 

[LisaLisa]

I am suddenly having this problem and I am super **bleep**ed. It just seems to have gone away in the last couple of weeks. I know booking with Google doesn’t require credit card but when somebody doesn’t book with Google, it’s ridiculous! I will look and see if there’s a per item option I can go through and update.

[HopeG]

I just started having this problem in the last couple of weeks when it was working great this whole year. Clients are putting their cc in when booking, but it does not get saved. I haven't changed any of my settings. I've looked to make sure no-show protection is on. Every service also has the cancellation fee. Please help!

[Vividlywicked]

I’ve been having this problem more and more often. I went through all of my services to make sure they have a cancellation fee - all set. Went through to make sure my no-show was set up correctly - all set.. but still I have 6 out of my next 8 appointments that have NO card!!! I need this fixed asap! 

[Valentina]

I moved this conversation over to a thread where we dig into Card on File and No-Show Protection - this should help clarify what you're seeing, @Vividlywicked. Please let us know if you still have questions after taking a look at the Best Answer in this thread.

Our phone team may also be able to help you ensure things are set up properly, so don't hesitate to reach out that way for some additional hands-on guidance! And welcome to the Seller Community ✨

[slickrob24]

[The title of this thread has been edited from the original: Can I charge a no show fee if customer unlinks his card]

I'm recently receiving a few new customers that book their appointments and as soon as they book, they unlink their card. I have the no show protection activated with a flat fee if they don't show up. So my question is, can I still charge them the no show fee while having their card unlinked. Can the customer even do this? Why does it give them the option to unlink their card while the appointment is active?? Does it cancel the appointment right away? Because I manually cancel them as soon as I get the email that they unlinked their card. I explain why I'm cancelling. Do I need to view my booking settings? Please help! 

[isabelle]

Hey @slickrob24! 

Welcome to the Seller Community.

Unlinking a card as a customer only affects whether there is a card-on-file for future payments. Unlinking the card doesn't affect whether the card is available for no-show charges via Square Appointments. Ultimately, even if the customer unlinks their card from being on file, you would still be able to charge a no-show fee.

If you're unable to charge the no-show fee, and they also happen to have unlinked their card, that wouldn't be the reason to why you weren't able to charge the fee. Please let me know if you have any questions about this. 

[WindhamWax]

Actually that’s happened to me and when I went to charge the No show fee, there was nothing there. Sooo when they Unlink their card... there’s nothing that protects us.

[JustinC]

Have you had a chance to read through @Isabelle__'s post above? The card on file feature is different than No-show protection. 

If the customer removes their card on file, you're still able to charge a no-show fee on the card the customer enters upon booking which is still accessible 14 calendar days after the scheduled appointment. 

Reach out to our Appointments Team if you still need help with this.