Card Types and Card Status

Card Types

The Savvy Connect Core platform distinguishes between a number of different card ‘types’ which show some differences in behaviour and can be used for different purposes. It is important to understand the differences between card types, since many implementations will use more than one card type.

S1 – Scratch Panel Card

Any physical plastic cards issued by Savvy are of this type, so any merchant with an existing Savvy programme is likely to have these cards. An S1 card has a card number (normally 16 digits, but possibly 19) which is both printed on the card and encoded on the magnetic strip. It has a PIN, normally 8 digits, which is predefined and is printed on the card under a scratch-off panel.

V1 – Virtual Card / eVoucher Code

The ‘virtual’ in the name is intended to imply that these exist as ‘card’ numbers that are not associated with an actual physical plastic card, i.e. they are digital card numbers. They are again normally 16 digits in length, and PINs can be either 4 digits (for older numbers) or 8 digits (the current standard). By default, the PIN is returned in response to the first load transaction. A merchant issuing V1 numbers will be allocated a ‘pool’ of these card numbers, and each time they use the InitializeVirtualCard endpoint, a randomly assigned number from this pool will be activated and returned.

Card Status

Every card in the Connect Core database has an associated status that can change over time. It is useful to understand what each status means.

Valid, Not Sold

This status is applied to all cards inserted into the Connect Core database, and means that the card exists and belongs to the merchant, but the merchant has not yet issued it to a customer. While a card has this status it is not available to transact apart from transactions that activate it (Load, Refund, InitializeVirtualCard).

Active

A Valid, Not Sold card becomes Active the first time a transaction that increases the balance of the card is applied to it. This includes InitializeVirtualCard, Load and Refund. A card will then remain in an Active state unless one of the following events occurs.

Lost / Stolen

Lost and Stolen are technically two separate statuses but they work in an identical manner. An Active card number can be flagged as lost or stolen (aka ‘frozen’), via the Connect Manager portal. Connect Manager provides a facility to transfer the balance from a lost/stolen card to a new card. Is a card has been ‘frozen’ this operation can be undone by calling the “Unfreeze” endpoint.

Expired

This is not strictly speaking a status of its own but it warrants a mention here. A card becomes Expired when its expiry date has passed, and as long as the card has an expiry date in the past, any attempts to transact on it will fail with response code 60. An expired card however actually retains its Active status, and can be easily have its expiry date extended by a Connect Manager user with the Card Status user role.