Merchant Initiated Transactions (MIT) is a service for you to charge your customer’s card without their activate participation. A transaction is first made with the cardholder actively present, or a cardholder payment agreement is made for future payments. MIT allows you to store a payment credential-on-file and use it for subscriptions, or on-going payments.

Use Cases

Stored credentials can help provide a seamless way for cardholders to transact online, in-app, or in-person with their favorite merchants. A stored credential-on-file can be used in either a cardholder-initiated or merchant-initiated transaction.

• Subscriptions payments: a subsequent ongoing payment for an e-course or service.
• Hotel additional charges or fees: A hotel charge for mini-bar expenses tallied after the guest has checked-out.
• Billing - Subsequent recurring payment that can vary in amount.

Note: The payment credentials temporarily retained to complete a single purchase are not considered as a stored credential-on-file. For one-time order fulfillment, or purchases made at a customers request refer to our Instant Pull Payments.

MIT Payment Flow

The first transaction in most payment workflows begin as a cardholder-initiated transaction (CIT).

Initial CIT

Subsequent MIT

How MIT works

Prerequisites

Clients need to register for a VMID (Visa Merchant ID) that corresponds with each Client ID. To get started and enable MIT email [email protected].

Note: Mastercard does not require registration.

1. Create Transaction

The Create Transaction API will support an MIT object that includes:

1. initiator: CIT-MIT Flag
2. type: MIT indicator
3. id: Purchase Identifier
4. networkID: Original Network ID when CIT-MIT flag is MIT

CIT-MIT Flag:

Indicates to TabaPay whether the TabaPay Client is performing a cardholder-initiated or a merchant-initiated transaction.

• Use C when consumer initiates the transaction
• Use M when the consumer is not present

MIT Indicator

This field contains an indicator for different use cases of recurring payments, utility bills, installments credential on file or standing orders all when the cardholder and merchant have agreed to the cardholders account being charged without their active participation.

For more values for the MIT type or indicator, refer to CIT-MIT Indicators, or the Create Transaction fields under recurringData.

Purchase Identifier

A client generated unique identifier can remain the same for both the initial CIT and subsequent MITs. This helps issuers link transactions and can improve approval rates.

Note: Use the same id from the CIT in all related MITs.

Original Network ID when CIT-MIT flag is MIT

For subsequent MITs, TabaPay Clients must pass the networkID in the Create Transaction from the response of the original first CIT.

2. Original First CIT Response

Notice the "networkID": "407903181027", in the response.

{
    "SC": 200,
    "EC": "0",
    "transactionID": "k5KnKwhgeita2lMToD9BQQ",
    "network": "Visa",
    "networkRC": "00",
    "networkID": "407903181027", //<-------networkID here
    "status": "COMPLETED",
    "approvalCode": "210558",
    "AVS": {
        "codeSecurityCode": "M"
    },
    "card": {
        "last4": "1111",
        "expirationDate": "202708",
        "nameFI": "Whoop I.E. Institution"
    }
}

3. Subsequent MIT Request

The same networkID is included in the subsequent MIT request, "networkID": "407903181027",

...  
"pullOptions": {
        "recurringData": {
            "initiator": "M",
            "type": "S",
            "id": "hqMZ-UEE2YEiYOj6HPxEXQ", //<----- networkID included here
            "networkID": "407903181027
        },
        "rec
    ...

Note: For the full request for Visa or Mastercard MITs, refer to the Recipes section.

MIT Recipes (Code Samples)

MIT FAQs

More Recipes

See more MIT examples with Auth & Capture.