Installment Management Service

Enable installment plans for cardholders.

How to Use Visa Installment Management Service

Installments Plan Management feature

This feature enables issuers to define installment plans as well as cardholder enrollment and eligibility. Using this feature, learn how to:

Enroll cardholders into installment offers

Using the Cardholder Enrollment API, you can enroll cardholders into eligible installment offers. To use this API, you must provide the following information in the request: 

  • Encrypted PAN
  • [Optional] Additional cardholder identification data (e.g. encrypted email address, mobile number, hashed URN)
  • [Optional] Plan data (e.g. pre-defined list of available plans, available credit, installments frequency, plan acceptance limit, number of installments)
  • [Optional] Cardholder preference (e.g. choice to opt for post-transaction/pre-transaction installments program)
  • [Optional] Extended Eligibility Check and Limit
  • [Optional] Client ID

The data response that you will receive will include: 

  • Number of eligible cardholders
  • Total number of cardholders not processed because of errors
  • [Optional] PANs of rejected cardholders

Additionally, if you do not want to use the Cardholder Enrollment API, there is an option to use Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) to submit batch files of eligible cardholders. 

Installments Acceptance feature

This feature enables issuers to get plan selection and plan cancellation details from Visa and send plan cancellation details back to Visa. Using this feature, learn how to:

Get a list of accepted/cancelled installment plans based on date/time or Plan ID

Using the Plan Acceptance API, you can get a list of accepted or cancelled installment plan offers and their corresponding transaction details based on different filters like date/time of the purchase or Plan Acceptance ID. A best practice is to pull these results at least once a day for your records.

To use the Plan Acceptance API, you can provide the following optional information in the request: 

  • [Optional] Start date and end date of the plan
  • [Optional] Client ID
  • [Optional] Plan Acceptance ID
  • [Optional] Status of plan acceptance (confirmed / cancelled) 

The data response that you will receive will include the following optional information: 

  • [Optional] A set of plan acceptance details for that duration (e.g. Transaction ID, Transaction amount, number of installments, fixed fee amount, variable fee amount, Plan Acceptance ID, status of Plan Acceptance, Plan Cancellation details, etc.)

Additionally, if you do not want to use the Plan Acceptance API, there is an option to use Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) to get batch files with confirmed plan acceptances or plan cancellations. 

Get a list of accepted/cancelled installment plans based on PAN

Using the Plan Acceptance by Cardholder API, you can get a list of accepted or cancelled installment plan offers and their corresponding transaction details based on PAN. A best practice is to pull these results at least once a day for your records. To use this API, you must provide the following information in the request: 

  • [Optional] Encrypted PAN
  • [Optional] Additional cardholder identification data (e.g. encrypted email address, mobile number, hashed URN)
  • Start date and end date of the plan
  • [Optional] Client ID
  • [Optional] Status of plan acceptance (confirmed / cancelled) 
  • [Optional] Plan Acceptance ID

The data response that you will receive will include the following optional information: 

  • [Optional] A set of plan acceptance details for that duration (e.g. Transaction ID, Transaction amount, number of installments, fixed fee amount, variable fee amount, Plan Acceptance ID, status of Plan Acceptance, Plan Cancellation details, etc.)

Additionally, if you do not want to use the Plan Acceptance by Cardholder API, there is an option to use Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) to get batch files with confirmed plan acceptances or plan cancellations. 

Cancel an installment plan

When consumers return an item, issuers may use the Plan Cancellation API to cancel previously active installment plans. Currently, partial refunds are not supported – only the full amount can be refunded to the cardholder. To use this API, you must provide the following information in the request: 

  • Encrypted PAN
  • [Optional] Additional cardholder identification data (e.g. encrypted email address, mobile number, hashed URN)
  • [Optional] Client ID
  • [Optional] Refund Amount
  • [Optional] Refund Transaction ID
  • [Optional] Plan Acceptance ID
  • [Optional] Transaction ID from Auth 

The data response that you will receive will include the following optional information:

  • The cancellation date, time, and status
  • Cancellation status 
  • Transaction ID 

Installments Ledger Management feature

Issuers can opt-in to the optional Installments Ledger Management feature at the time of registration and onboarding. This feature enables issuers to manage installment payment schedules and maintain ledger activity files, recording and processing irregular payment activity and plan cancellations. Issuers use ledger activity files (LAFs) to manage cardholder statements for Installment Transactions and applicable payments. Issuers can use this feature to get hourly activity files via batch file (SFTP) of general ledger for issuer’s funding account and each cardholder account. Using this feature, learn how to:

Update a cardholder's plan acceptance schedule

Using the Irregular Installment Payments API, you can submit irregular payments to an Installment Plan Acceptance schedule. This API is available only when Issuers opt in for the Scheduling/Ledger service. To use this API, you must provide the following information in the request: 

  • Plan Acceptance ID
  • [Optional] Client ID
  • [Optional] Number of payments
  • Payment type (i.e. partial, etc.)

The data response that you will receive will include: 

  • Plan Acceptance ID
  • Next payment amount
  • Next payment date and time
  • Remaining balance
  • Remaining number of payments