Network Tokens and their advantages

Network tokens are unique digital identifiers that serve as substitutes for sensitive card information, such as the primary account number (PAN) and expiry date. They are used throughout the payment process to replace and protect card details, ensuring that sensitive data remains secure during transactions.

The advantages of using network tokens include:

• Improved authorization rates: Network tokens typically achieve higher authorization rates, as they are often regarded as more trustworthy by issuers.
• Seamless card updates: When a card is reissued (e.g. due to expiration), the network token remains unchanged, thereby minimizing disruptions in recurring payments. This feature is particularly advantageous for subscription-based businesses.
• Enhanced security and reduced fraud rates: According to Visa, network tokens can reduce fraud rates by up to 30%.
• Better customer experience: Customers experience fewer service interruptions due to seamless card updates and higher transaction success rates.
• Reduced fees: The fees charged by card schemes for transactions processed with network tokens are generally lower than those for standard transactions.

Network Tokens at ProcessOut

ProcessOut seamlessly manages network tokenization, storage and utilization in the background. The tokens are stored securely in ProcessOut’s PCI-compliant Vault.

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Enabling network tokens

Network tokens support is not enabled by default. If you want to enable it for your project, contact your Account Manager.

Provisioning network token for a card

Network tokens are automatically provisioned when creating a customer token using a card token. For more details, visit the documentation on how to create a customer token . The network token is issued asynchronously to ensure optimal performance and uptime. Generally, there is a brief delay (few seconds) before the token becomes available for use in payments. A webhook notification is sent once the token is ready to use. If the token is not available at the time of payment, PAN will be utilized instead.

Using network tokens for payments

If NT is readily available for the card and the chosen payment service provider (PSP) supports its use, it will be automatically utilized instead of PAN. If the transaction with NT is declined, ProcessOut will automatically attempt to retry it using the same PSP, but this time with PAN instead of NT. This additional payment attempt does not count towards the ProcessOut retries limit.

If PSP does not support NT, ProcessOut will always use PAN.

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Performance optimization

ProcessOut can help you optimize your Network Token strategy to maximize performance or minimize cost. Please reach out to your Account Manager to learn how.

Tracking usage and analyzing network tokens performance

With the API

Transaction operations processed using NT are marked with processed_with_network_token=true flag.

{
    "transaction": {
        "id": "tr_2pnmQtpU5mKsjggFl4gRcxkOV4sFpKPG",
        ...
        "operations": [
            {
                "id": "tr_op_2pnmQtpU5mNjZQjFgTZ0koFerDbGm2YI",
                ...
                "type": "authorization",
                "processed_with_network_token": true
            }
        ]
}

Using Monitoring

Network Token performance can be monitored through customized charts by focusing on transactions where the Is network token property is set to TRUE. For accurate tracking, the charts should analyze authorization rates of initial authorization attempts, as these are the instances where network tokens are utilized. This approach ensures measurement of NT performance by excluding subsequent authorization attempts that do not involve network tokens.