Visa Account Updater

VAU at a Glance

Available for use by:
Issuer banks Acquirer banks Issuer banks for small businesses

With Visa Account Updater (VAU), issuers can submit updated cardholder account information for acquirers to access on behalf of participating merchants that meet VAU requirements and have a commercial agreement with the cardholder.

Merchants use the updated information to support recurring payments, subscription services, e-commerce transactions, and preferred customer programs, which helps acquirers reduce back-office expenses related to outdated account information.

VAU provides an automated and secure clearinghouse that makes changes to cardholder account information available quickly while offering multiple solutions to support credential-on-file (COF) payment relationships, including:

  • VAU (batch and API)
  • Real Time VAU
  • VAU Push Subscribe Service

Each solution offers unique capabilities and provides automatic account updates to merchants and acquirers. Participating merchants can access issuer updates in all solutions. These solutions are not mutually exclusive; Visa recommends that merchants and acquirers participate in all solutions where appropriate.

Real Time VAU also supports Visa Direct transactions for SMS and functions as an API through the Visa Developer Center (VDC).

These tables list VAU issuer and acquirer features for each solution:

VAU Issuer Solution Features

Solution Feature
VAU (Batch File)
  • Supports large-scale updates.
  • Updates are shared to Real Time VAU once per day.
  • Supports automatic sharing of primary account number (PAN) and expiration date changes with the Visa Token Service (VTS).
  • Supports portfolio conversions from other payment networks.
0302 PAN Maintenance File Messages
  • Supports one update at a time.
  • Updates are effective immediately for VTS and Real Time VAU.
  • Updates received from V.I.P until 16:00 GMT are processed by VAU between 18:00 and 20:00 hours GMT.
VTS PAN Lifecycle API
  • Supports one update at a time.
  • Updates are effective immediately for VTS and Real Time VAU.
  • Supports portfolio conversions from other payment networks.
VAU Issuer Solution Features

VAU Acquirer Solution Features

Solution Features
VAU (Batch File)
  • Operates outside VisaNet.
  • Requires a two-step authorization process.
  • Supports batch files for large-scale updates.
  • Supports portfolio conversions from other payment networks.
VAU (API)
  • Operates outside VisaNet.
  • Requires a two-step authorization process.
  • Provides credential updates in near-real time when available.
  • Supports up to 100 PANs per API call.
  • Supports portfolio conversions from other payment networks.
Real Time VAU (VisaNet)
  • Operates within VisaNet.
  • Enables a one-step authorization process by applying account updates before the authorization request is sent to the issuer.
  • Supports only Visa updates and brand conversions.
VAU Push Subscribe Service (subscription)
  • Operates outside VisaNet.
  • Proactively provides updates to subscribed PANs.
  • Requires merchants to subscribe through their acquirers.
  • Supports up to 100 PANs per API call.
  • Supports portfolio conversions from other payment networks.
VAU Acquirer Solution Features

VAU Data Retention

VAU stores data for a rolling 5-year period, which includes:

  • The most recent 4 years of data, stored in an active database and available for merchant inquiries.
  • A further 1 year of data, archived for reporting purposes and not available for merchant inquiries.

Stop advice and opt-out data remains stored indefinitely unless an end date is specified or the stop advice or opt-out is removed.

VAU Documentation

VAU documentation, including information about file delivery methods, can be found on Visa Access.

For more information about VAU APIs, contact [email protected].

VAU Contacts

For regional support, and questions regarding enrollment, see these contacts:

For LAC clients, log into LAC Visa Access and submit a Visa Support Hub (VSH) self-service case.