Forums/Getting Started/Frequently Asked Questions
How do I export my customer’s credit card information if I decide to leave Chargify?
Michael Klett
posted this on May 10, 2011 08:41 pm
Chargify does not store any actual credit card data. Currently, we only support gateways that offer vault storage options. The cards are stored in these secure vaults, and we store a token that can be used to charge that card on your gateway. If you leave Chargify, your credit card vault data remains with your gateway provider. You would need to work with your gateway directly if you need to export that data.
If you need access to your Subscription, Customer, or Transaction data, you can use the Chargify API or our CSV Export feature. For more information, please see our documentation on Exporting Data.
Comments
Does this mean I can get the credit card information out of the Vault at my gateway? Or is it stored in the Chargify gateway's vault?
Kyle
We currently store the card data only the vault at your own gateway. You will need to work with them in order to get the data out, which they may or may not allow (some gateways have better policies on this than others)
Can you recommend some gateways that would be easy to work with as far accessing/exporting vault data? I'm keen to integrate with Chargify but I'm concerned with becoming vendor locked in.
@Dusty: I think you're missing the point. I'll give you a use case.
We started out with our own homegrown solution on Authorize.net using their Customer Information Management solution. Authorize.net (our current gateway) stores all of the CC info. When we moved to chargify, we merely had to import the CIM (vault) information to chargify. If we wanted to leave, we could just use the API to pull the vault info out for each customer and give it to the next provider or homegrown solution.
tl;dr: Chargify doesn't store CC info. The gateway stores the info. You generally cannot export info from one gateway to another due to PCI restrictions.
@Ryan: Ah! Yes, thanks! I think that clarifies things for me. So, it's likely I'll be locked in with my Gateway, however as long as I have the tokens that associate my customers with their CC stored in my Gateway's vault (which Chargify includes in the subscription export option), I could move from Chargify to a different recurring billing solution? ... Perfect!
Can we use braintreepayments.com?