When a customer has a card on file, is that permission to charge them? Can't get in touch...

[1squarelover]

We have a customer who has saved a credit card on file. Usually I send an invoice and link to pay nonetheless, and they pay, but this time I am having trouble getting in touch. Can I go ahead and charge them for an order I know they have received?

[ecantiques5]

@1squarelover

From another square payment processing lover lol... This can get a little tricky as I never like to charge any of my clients cards unless I know for certain I have their approval. According to the terms when a customer leaves their credit card on file they are sort of giving a blank authorization for you to submit charges to the card on file. I would send an invoice to my customer and then once the invoice is prepared and sent you can go in and click the take payment Tab and process and on the card they have on file. 

If you have a telephone number for your client I would also give them a call just to be on the safe side because if this would happen to be disputed you're looking at the yucky chargeback situation.

Best of luck to you!

[puka]

Hey @1squarelover! - Welcome to the Community!

As @ecantiques5 stated, it might be best to reach out to your customer for their consent to charge the Card on File. The most important reason is it reduces the risk of a chargeback. Once you are able to get in touch with them, you can ask for written confirmation on whether that card is okay to charge in the future. This might be a good practice when other customers add a Card on File to help cover your bases in the event that this happens again (knock on wood).

Feel free to check out our other Best Practices for Square Invoices.

Hope that helps!

[aamatta]

I have a customer that is on a monthly payment agreement. I send a monthly invoice and the customer pays online. We have never had a problem with the customer paying but now she is on her last payment and she has not paid her invoice. I see she saw the invoice but has not made any attempt to pay the invoice. She is not 2 months late. She saved he card on file. Are we authorized to charge her final payment with her card on file? 

[Tom]

Hi @aamatta, welcome to the seller community. Sorry to hear about the trouble with contacting this customer. Do you have any written documentation that gives you permission to charge their card on an ongoing basis? Before proceeding, I'd suggest having a look at this resource on authorization for card on file payments: What is a credit card authorization form? Hope that helps explain best practices. Please let me know if you have any further questions.

[1squarelover]

Thank you for your insight!

[puka]

No problem! Definitely keep us posted on if you run into any other issues. Good luck!