A few days ago, I received a new credit card in the mail to replace the one expiring in the next month. Since I pay a half-dozen or more bills using that credit card, I know I need to update the expiration date on their websites, and I keep a list of bills I pay with that card. I went to the first one, and the new expiration date was already there. The same was true for most of the rest of the websites. What the heck was going on?
This is due to a new service called the Account Updater Program. Offered by the credit card networks, they send the updated info (new expiration date and CVV) to the card network’s database. Major merchants and service providers that use recurring billing are subscribed to these updates. If a change is found, the network securely provides the new information to the merchant. The merchant then automatically updates your profile on their end.
Why do they do this? A couple of reasons. First, it prevents "payment declined" notifications and service interruptions. Second, merchants want to ensure they get paid without you having to log in manually, which is also when some people decide to cancel their subscription.
The only account I had to manually update was a yearly renewal for an Apple storage service. I guess yearly does not fit the definition of "recurring."
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