Create a Card on File and a Payment

This procedure is used when your Square account isn't a developer account and your application uses only a seller account access token. The customer, card, and payment are all created in a seller account.

Before saving a card on file, you need to get a valid single-use payment token that represents a buyer's payment card using the Web Payments SDKWeb Payments SDK or In-App Payments SDKIn-App Payments SDK. You don't need to charge the buyer's card to save it. The payment token can be used to save a card on file, create a payment, or both.

Use the CreateCustomerCreateCustomer endpoint to create a new customer in the seller Square account using an OAuth token generated for the seller.

The following example CreateCustomer request is made with an access token from the seller Square account:

The Customers API returns the following response:

{
  "customer": {
    "id": "Q6VKKKGW8GWQNEYMDRMV01QMK8",
    "created_at": "2021-03-31T18:27:07.803Z",
    "updated_at": "2021-03-31T18:27:07Z",
    "given_name": "Amelia",
    "family_name": "Earhart",
    "email_address": "Amelia.Earhart@example.com",
    "preferences": {
      "email_unsubscribed": false
    },
    "creation_source": "THIRD_PARTY"
  }
}

The id field in the response is used in the following step.

Call the CreateCardCreateCard endpoint with a card token and idempotency key using an OAuth token from the seller Square account.

The following example uses the customer_id value of Q6VKKKGW8GWQNEYMDRMV01QMK8 returned in the response in the previous step:

The Cards API returns the following response:

{
  "card": {
    "id": "ccof:uIbfJXhXETSP197M3GB",
    "billing_address": {
      "address_line_1": "500 Electric Ave",
      "address_line_2": "Suite 600",
      "locality": "New York",
      "administrative_district_level_1": "NY",
      "postal_code": "10003",
      "country": "US"
    },
    "bin": "411111",
    "card_brand": "VISA",
    "card_type": "CREDIT",
    "cardholder_name": "Amelia Earhart",
    "customer_id": "Q6VKKKGW8GWQNEYMDRMV01QMK8",
    "enabled": true,
    "exp_month": 11,
    "exp_year": 2024,
    "last_4": "1111",
    "prepaid_type": "NOT_PREPAID",
    "reference_id": "user-id-1",
    "version": 1
  }
}

Use CreatePaymentCreatePayment for a new payment in the seller account.

This is an optional step that you do only if you want to take a payment with the card that was just stored on file. If you don't want to take a payment, skip this step. The customer payment card is already stored on file.

Create a new payment in the seller account where the source_id is the ID of the newly saved card on file from step 2 and the customer_id from step 1.

• Cards API OverviewCards API Overview
• Manage Customer Cards on FileManage Customer Cards on File
• Create a Card on File from a Payment IDCreate a Card on File from a Payment ID
• Create a Shared Card on File and Make a PaymentCreate a Shared Card on File and Make a Payment