How to Screen Recurring Transactions for Authorization Optimizer

October 23, 2026 22:04

Authorization Optimizer shares data only for transactions that you send to Payments Fraud. Send every recurring billing transaction to Payments Fraud, not only the first transaction, so that issuers receive the same context for each renewal.

Why each recurring transaction matters

Issuers evaluate each renewal as a separate authorization request. If you screen only the first transaction of a subscription, the issuer receives no Authorization Optimizer data for the renewals. Payments Fraud also receives less data about the subscription, which reduces the accuracy of risk scores and chargeback reporting.

How to send recurring transactions

For the first transaction of a subscription, include the items.recurring object in the Orders API request.

Include startDate, endDate, period, billingCycle, and externalSubscriptionId.
For each renewal, send a new Orders API POST request with riskInquiry set to true before you request payment authorization.
In each renewal request, increase items.recurring.billingCycle by one and update items.recurring.nextBillingDate.
Use the same account.id and items.recurring.externalSubscriptionId in every request for the subscription.

Payments Fraud uses these identifiers to link renewals to the original subscription.
Include the card Bank Identification Number (BIN) in transactions.payment.bin in every request.
After you receive the authorization result, send it to the Orders Update PATCH endpoint.

Note

If an order contains more than one recurring item, Authorization Optimizer shares the billing interval and end date of the first recurring item only. To share accurate details for each subscription, send subscriptions with different billing intervals as separate orders.

Example recurring item

The following example shows the items array for the third billing cycle of a monthly subscription. All values are fictitious.

"items": [
  {
    "id": "PLAN-GOLD",
    "price": 1999,
    "quantity": 1,
    "category": "Subscription",
    "isDigital": true,
    "recurring": {
      "startDate": "2026-05-14",
      "endDate": "2027-05-14",
      "initialBillingAmount": "1999",
      "periodBillingAmount": "1999",
      "period": "Monthly",
      "externalSubscriptionId": "SUB-001",
      "status": "ACTIVE",
      "billingCycle": 3,
      "nextBillingDate": "2026-08-14",
      "description": "Gold Tier Monthly"
    }
  }
]

Was this article helpful?

0 out of 0 found this helpful