Verify a card

Last updated: February 26, 2025

You can perform a card verification to verify a cardholder's payment information without charging the customer.

For example, you can use this type of authorization request if you offer a free trial period for a product or service.

For example, you may choose to collect credit card information during an initial registration process but offer a 30-day trial period before charging the customer's credit card. The cardholder's details are saved to their account, allowing you to charge the card when necessary.

To verify a card, set up a payment request with the amount field omitted or set to 0.

post

https://api.checkout.com/payments

For the full specification, as well as complete request and response examples, see our API Reference


1{
2  "source": {
3    "type": "token",
4    "token": "tok_yo2zfqgdnn4u7gswjbjmqt5mza"
5  },
6  "currency": "USD"
7}


1{
2  "id": "pay_aqwuar5sjb5upkupgywyzapfii",
3  "action_id": "act_aqwuar5sjb5upkupgywyzapfii",
4  "amount": 0,
5  "currency": "USD",
6  "approved": true,
7  "status": "Card Verified",
8  "auth_code": "085143",
9  "eci": "05",
10  "scheme_id": "638284745624527",
11  "response_code": "10000",
12  "response_summary": "Approved",
13  "risk": {
14    "flagged": false
15  },
16  "source": {
17    "id": "src_o67xgoxulgnuhgeaxsdk4cbvgq",
18    "type": "card",
19    "expiry_month": 9,
20    "expiry_year": 2022,
21    "scheme": "Visa",
22    "last4": "4242",
23    "fingerprint": "F31828E2BDABAE63EB694903825CDD36041CC6ED461440B81415895855502832",
24    "bin": "424242",
25    "card_type": "CREDIT",
26    "card_category": "CONSUMER",
27    "issuer": "Test Bank",
28    "issuer_country": "US",
29    "product_id": "A",
30    "product_type": "Visa Traditional",
31    "avs_check": "S",
32    "cvv_check": ""
33  },
34  "customer": {
35    "id": "cus_vrdaroxvawlevmxxvhi66thpum"
36  },
37  "processed_on": "2024-01-17T17:41:52Z",
38  "_links": {
39    "self": {
40      "href": "https://api.sandbox.checkout.com/payments/pay_aqwuar5sjb5upkupgywyzapfii"
41    },
42    "actions": {
43      "href": "https://api.sandbox.checkout.com/payments/pay_aqwuar5sjb5upkupgywyzapfii/actions"
44    }
45  }
46}

If the response contains an approved field set to true and a status field set to Card Verified, the verification was successful.

If the card verification was unsuccessful, the card may be invalid, expired, or have insufficient available balance on the account.

Not all issuing banks support card verification. They may reject the charge request even if the card details are valid.

Additionally, some issuers might not support zero-amount authorizations. In these cases, you can:

Manually retry the verification with the amount field set to a low nominal value, and then void the payment.
Enable Intelligent Acceptance to automatically retry these payments.

If you receive a 202 response, a redirect is required. For example, if 3D Secure (3DS) authentication is required.

For more information on the value returned in the source.cvv_check field, see the CVV response codes page.

You can also review the results in the card_verified webhook.

You can simulate card verification outcomes to test your integration.

To reduce the risk of fraud, you can validate a cardholder's name against the name held by their issuing bank using Account Name Inquiry (ANI). ANI is a card verification service that works independently of the financial transaction.

When you request an ANI check, the system returns a match result for each name you provided, or an overall match result for the complete name.

ANI checks are available for:

Visa in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom
Mastercard globally, subject to issuer acceptance. For more information, contact your account manager or request support.

To request an ANI check, include the account_holder object in your card verification request:

type set to one of individual, corporate, or government
first_name, middle_name, and last_name, if the account holder is an individual
company_name, if the account holder is a corporate or government entity
account_name_inquiry set to true

Additionally, set the amount field to 0.

post

https://api.checkout.com/payments


1{
2  "source": {
3    "type": "token",
4    "token": "tok_yo2zfqgdnn4u7gswjbjmqt5mza",
5    "account_holder": {
6      "type": "individual",
7      "first_name": "John",
8      "middle_name": "Joe",      
9      "last_name": "Doe",
10      "account_name_inquiry": true
11    }
12  },
13  "amount": 0,
14  "currency": "USD"
15}


1{
2  "id": "pay_aqwuar5sjb5upkupgywyzapfii",
3  "action_id": "act_aqwuar5sjb5upkupgywyzapfii",
4  "amount": 0,
5  "currency": "USD",
6  "approved": true,
7  "status": "Card Verified",
8  "auth_code": "085143",
9  "eci": "05",
10  "scheme_id": "638284745624527",
11  "response_code": "10000",
12  "response_summary": "Approved",
13  "risk": {
14    "flagged": false
15  },
16  "source": {
17    "id": "src_o67xgoxulgnuhgeaxsdk4cbvgq",
18    "type": "card",
19    "expiry_month": 9,
20    "expiry_year": 2022,
21    "scheme": "Visa",
22    "last4": "4242",
23    "fingerprint": "F31828E2BDABAE63EB694903825CDD36041CC6ED461440B81415895855502832",
24    "bin": "424242",
25    "account_holder": {
26      "account_name_inquiry": "full_match",
27      "account_name_inquiry_details": {
28        "first_name": "full_match",
29        "middle_name": "full_match",
30        "last_name": "full_match"
31      }
32    },
33    "card_type": "CREDIT",
34    "card_category": "CONSUMER",
35    "issuer": "Test Bank",
36    "issuer_country": "US",
37    "product_id": "A",
38    "product_type": "Visa Traditional",
39    "avs_check": "S",
40    "cvv_check": ""
41  },
42  "customer": {
43    "id": "cus_vrdaroxvawlevmxxvhi66thpum"
44  },
45  "processed_on": "2024-01-17T17:41:52Z",
46  "_links": {
47    "self": {
48      "href": "https://api.sandbox.checkout.com/payments/pay_aqwuar5sjb5upkupgywyzapfii"
49    },
50    "actions": {
51      "href": "https://api.sandbox.checkout.com/payments/pay_aqwuar5sjb5upkupgywyzapfii/actions"
52    }
53  }
54}

You receive the result of ANI checks as an ANI code in the account_holder.account_name_inquiry field in the response.

If you request an ANI check from Visa, you can inspect the account_name_inquiry_details object for a more detailed breakdown of the matches. For example, you can get an account_name_inquiry": "partial_match" result, if:

account_name_inquiry_details.first_name and account_name_inquiry_details.last_name result in a full_match but
account_name_inquiry_details.middle_name is no_match

You can use this detailed information to better adjust whether you verify the transaction or not.

You can simulate different outcomes using ANI check testing.

Verify a card

Request a card verification

Request example

Response example

Request an account name inquiry

Request an ANI check

Request

Response