Storing Payment Instruments on File to Enable the Use of Merchant Initiated Transactions
With the Payment Instruments feature, you can preserve payment instruments on file by checking the Preserve on File box. Payment instruments that are not preserved on file are indicated by the tilde character (~).
Preserving a payment instrument on file lets the merchant use the payment instrument to invoke a Merchant Initiated Transaction (MIT). An MIT, for example a recurring payment, does not require any cardholder interaction.
MITs are currently supported for the Authorization and Sale payment operations with the Payment Card, Payment Card Token, and General Token payment instrument types.
Related Payment Event Record Fields
The Payment Initiator field on the payment event record shows how a particular transaction was invoked:
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Merchant, in case of a Merchant Initiated Transaction (MIT) – the merchant uses a payment instrument preserved on file to generate the transaction.
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Customer, in case of a Customer Initiated Transaction (CIT) – the cardholder actively participates during the authorization process.
The MIT Purpose field shows one of the following supported MIT justifications:
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Installments – the customer payment pays only installments.
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Recurring – the Recurring Payment box is checked on a memorized transaction, billing schedule, or was manually checked by the user.
The values of the Payment Initiator and MIT Purpose fields are set internally and cannot be set manually.