Boost recurring donations this giving season with the upsell prompt!Learn How >>

What saved payment methods are and where they appear

updated

A saved payment method is a card stored against a Soapbox user account so it can be charged later without asking for the card again. Soapbox never holds the card number itself — the card lives with Stripe, and Soapbox stores only a reference to it plus the last four digits, brand, and expiry for display.

Important: Saved payment methods work only on sites that take payment through Stripe. On a site using any other processor the feature does not appear at all — there is no message explaining its absence, so the sections described below are simply missing.

What uses them today

Auctions. A bidder's saved card is what an auction charges at settlement. Each auction picks one of the bidder's cards as the auction default, so a bidder with several cards on file is charged the right one for the event they are attending.

That is the whole of it at present. Saving a card does not make it available to Donations forms, the Shop, or event registration, which each take payment at the moment of the transaction.

Where a card can be added

Where Who does it Typical moment
Soapbox Engage Onsite Your team, on a phone or tablet At a registration desk or on the auction floor
Users → User edit, in the administrator An administrator Tidying up a record before or after an event
The bidder's own account page The bidder Whenever they choose
Auctions → the bidder's detail panel An administrator While working a specific auction

All four write to the same place. A card added at the door on a phone is the same record an administrator sees the next morning, and the bidder sees on their own account page.

Who can see a saved card

An administrator can see the cards saved to any user, and can remove them. A signed-in user sees only their own. Nobody — administrator or user — can see the full card number, because Soapbox never receives it.

Related articles:

Have more questions? Submit a request
Article is closed for comments.