Recurring payments

Recurring payments let you charge a shopper's saved card for payments they have agreed to, such as subscriptions or standing orders. Today recurring payments work with cards only.

There are two kinds of recurring payments:

How it works

sequenceDiagram
    autonumber
    participant S as Shopper
    participant M as Your server
    participant A as Aera
    M->>A: Create recurring payment session (recurringInfo)
    A-->>M: pspReference, paymentSessionUrl
    M-->>S: Redirect to paymentSessionUrl
    Note over S,A: Shopper agrees and pays the first payment (or 0)
    M->>A: Get payment status
    A-->>M: recurringReference
    Note over M: Save the recurringReference
    M->>A: Authorize recurring payment (recurringReference)
    A-->>M: New pspReference for this payment

Step 1: Set up the agreement with a first payment

Call Create recurring payment session. The shopper completes the first payment on the hosted or embedded checkout, and the card is saved for the later payments.

The first payment can be the first term, or zero (0) if you only want the shopper's approval now.

{
  "merchantData": {
    "successRedirectUrl": "https://shop.example.com/success",
    "cancelRedirectUrl": "https://shop.example.com/cancel",
    "errorRedirectUrl": "https://shop.example.com/error"
  },
  "transactionData": {
    "merchantReference": "sub-12344333",
    "immediateCapture": true,
    "amountDetails": { "amount": 20000, "currency": "NOK" }
  },
  "paymentInstrumentsProfileData": {
    "merchantShopperId": "LOYAL-70018882"
  },
  "recurringInfo": {
    "recurringModel": "SCHEDULED",
    "recurringFrequency": 28,
    "recurringDescription": "Gym membership"
  }
}

This sets up a monthly subscription with a variable amount. The first payment is NOK 200, but that amount isn't tied to the later payments.

The agreement (recurringInfo)

For recurring sessions, only CARD is available. You don't need paymentMethodInfo unless you want to limit the card schemes.

Step 2: Get the recurring reference

After the first payment, call Get payment status with the pspReference. Save the recurringReference from the authorisation details. You need it for every later payment.

All operations on the first payment, such as capture, cancel, refund, update and status, use its pspReference as usual.

Step 3: Charge the later payments

Call Authorize recurring payment with the recurringReference. No checkout page is shown, because the shopper isn't present.

{
  "transactionData": {
    "merchantReference": "sub-12344333-2026-11",
    "recurringReference": "0192a7c4-6b2e-7f10-9a3d-5c6e7f8a9b0c",
    "immediateCapture": true,
    "amountDetails": { "amount": 19900, "currency": "NOK" }
  }
}

Each recurring payment gets its own new pspReference. Use it to capture (if immediateCapture is false), cancel, refund or check the payment.

Your responsibility

• Charge only payments the shopper agreed to in your terms and conditions.
• Keep each payment within the agreed amount limits and frequency. For SCHEDULED, wait at least recurringFrequency days between payments, and never charge after recurringExpiry.
• For merchant-initiated payments, the shopper can ask for a chargeback, and you are liable in a dispute.

Good to know

• A card saved for recurring payments and also for convenience has two paymentInstrumentReference values. Deleting one doesn't delete the other. See Save cards.