Recurring billing in Authorize.Net

Question

I am using the below feature to create recurring ARB at Authorize.Net

https://developer.authorize.net/api/reference/index.html#recurring-billing-create-a-subscription

We have implemented it in PHP but it is also accepting the test credit card details at time of ARB creation in live mode. It is not validating the credit card at time of ARB creation.

So is there anyway to validate the card at time of ARB creation not at time of amount deduction. I know it will validate when the first amount will deduct but I want validation at time of ARB creation.

Please suggest some solution if someone faced it before or anyone have any idea how to do it.

Answer 1

You can validate the card at the time of subscription payment by doing a $0.00 or $0.01 AUTH_ONLY transaction before you create the subscription. If the card is approved you can be sure the card is valid.

Keep in this mind that this does not validate that the card will be valid at the time the first subscription payment is processed or that the funds will be available (i.e. the transaction will be approved) as there is no way to know this until the card is actually processed at that time. But this will validate the credit card is otherwise valid.

Assuming you want to charge the credit card immediately and then have a recurring payment afterwards, you should do an AUTH_CAPTURE for the first payment and then future payments should be done using the ARB API. That way you are sure to capture your first payment, and validate the card, before you create the subscription.