A customer can keep any number of cards on file. Each is stored as a secure token, one can be marked the default, and you pick which to charge — or none — at payment time.

Storing a card on file means a customer does not have to hand one over every time — useful for account customers, recurring charges, invoices and phone orders. A customer is no longer limited to one stored card: they can keep several, and you choose which one to use at payment time.

Only a token is stored. The card number itself never lands in PHP Point Of Sale; the processor holds it and returns a reference plus a short preview (the issuer and the last few digits) so a human can tell the cards apart. Saving cards requires a processor that supports it — see taking card payments and choosing a payment processor.

Save a card

During a card payment, with a customer attached to the sale, tick Save Credit Card for Customer before completing the payment. The card is stored against that customer once the charge is approved.

The checkbox stays available even when the customer already has cards saved, so adding a second or third card is the same action as adding the first.

A card is only saved from a successful authorization. A declined or partially completed card payment does not leave a stored card behind.

Charge a saved card

With a customer attached, choose Credit Card as the payment type. If they have cards on file, a Use CC # dropdown appears listing each saved card by issuer and last digits, plus:

• Do not use saved card — take a fresh card on the terminal instead, even though cards are stored.

Pick a card and complete the sale as usual; the terminal is not involved. The same selector appears when paying an invoice.

If the card you chose is deleted by somebody else while the sale is still open, the register tells you The saved card that was selected is no longer available. Please select a card again. rather than failing quietly — pick another card and carry on.

Manage a customer's cards

Open the customer under Customers and edit them. When they have cards stored, a Saved Credit Cards table appears on the form with a row per card:

• Credit Card — the card's display name: issuer and last digits.
• Default — a radio button. Exactly one card can be the default; selecting one moves the mark off whichever card had it.
• Delete credit card Info — tick it and save to remove that card.

Click Save to apply. Removing a card only removes the stored reference; past sales that used it are untouched.

The default card is the one used where a charge happens without a card being picked — a new subscription created from a sale, or an invoice payment with no card chosen. It is not retroactive: a subscription that already exists keeps the card captured when it was created, so changing the default here does not move an existing subscription onto the new card. For that, edit the subscription itself under Customers → Subscriptions — see series, packages and recurring charges.

Common questions

How many cards can a customer have? There is no fixed limit. In practice, keep it to the cards you actually bill — a long list is harder for staff to choose from correctly.

Which card do recurring charges use? The card stored on the subscription itself, captured when the subscription was created — not whichever card is currently the customer's default. To change it, open Customers → Subscriptions, click Edit on the subscription and use Update credit card; see series, packages and recurring charges. The customer's default card only decides what a new implicit charge uses.

Can I see the full card number? No, and neither can we. Only the issuer and the last few digits are stored, alongside the processor's token — the card number itself stays with the processor. Keeping card numbers out of your own system is a meaningful reduction in the PCI DSS burden, but it does not by itself take your payment environment out of scope. Your processor or a PCI assessor is the right source on what your store still has to do.

The customer's card expired. Take a fresh card on the next sale with Save Credit Card for Customer ticked, mark the new one Default, then delete the old one.

A card I saved is not offered at checkout. Check that the customer is attached to the sale — the selector only appears with a customer — and that the payment type is Credit Card. Manual card entry cannot be combined with a saved card in the same charge.