Audience:
Physical card renewal
The automatic 3-year renewal cycle: what changes, the 10-week and 8-week checkpoints, and how to opt out.
Physical cards are renewed automatically before the expiry date. By default, cards expire three years after the card is printed, and are renewed for an additional three years.
When a physical card is renewed, the card numbers, CVC, identifier, and expiry date change. The four-digit PIN doesn't change for a continuous user experience. If your user prefers to choose their PIN, they need to cancel the expiring card and order a new one. It's not possible to choose a new PIN during renewal.
The renewal process is driven by two dedicated statuses, ToRenew and Renewed.
Refer to the renewal statuses for the full state machine, including how suspension interacts with renewal.
Stopping the automatic renewal
To stop a card from renewing automatically without canceling it, call the cancelPhysicalCardRenewal mutation while the card is in the ToRenew status.
The card remains active until its expiry date, then expires rather than being renewed and reissued.
Refer to the renewal guide for the mutation.
Subscriptions
After the new card is enabled, Swan uses Mastercard's Automatic Billing Updater to update the details about the tokenized card. If a merchant adheres to Mastercard's Automatic Billing Updater, they receive the tokenized card's updated details automatically through this service.
So certain existing subscriptions can be transferred to the new card without any action from the cardholder.
Card delivery
New physical cards are shipped between the 11th and 15th of the month before the card expires. For example, if the card expires on the last day of March, the new card ships between 11-15 February of the same year.
Delivery details are available in the PhysicalCardRenewedStatusInfo object.
The estimated delivery date can be found in the estimatedDeliveryDate field.
You'll find the carrier and tracking number in the fields shippingProvider and trackingNumber as soon as they're available.
Verify delivery address
10 weeks before the original card expires, verify the delivery address with your cardholder.
If Swan doesn't receive updated address information at least 8 weeks before the card renews, the renewed card is shipped to the same address as the original card.
| Interface | Address update method |
|---|---|
| Swan's Web Banking app | Cardholders confirm or update their address in the app at least 8 weeks before renewal. |
| Custom integration | Send the updated address to Swan at least 8 weeks before the card renews. Provide a way for your cardholders to verify their address (for example, from your app, with a notification system, or through your own support team), then follow the renewal guide to send Swan the updated address with the confirmPhysicalCardRenewal mutation. |
Subscribe to the Card.Updated webhook to get notified when the card moves to ToRenew, giving you time to verify the delivery address with your cardholder.
Activating the new card
After the cardholder makes an in-person transaction with the new card using the chip and PIN payment method, the new card's status changes from Renewed to Activated.
You can also use the API.
The old card is then marked isExpired=true because only one card can be activated at a time.
Details about expired physical cards are available in the card query (card > physicalCard > previousPhysicalCards).