Deprecated

Card payments on the Charges API Deprecated

Learn how to charge, save, and authenticate cards with Stripe's legacy APIs.

Deprecated

We’ve deprecated use of the Charges API to create card payments and plan to remove support. Use Checkout or the Payment Intents API instead. New integrations can’t use the Charges API to create payments.

The Charges API doesn’t support the following features, many of which are required for credit card compliance:

If you use the Charges API, your access to newer Stripe features is limited. To get the latest features, migrate to the Payment Intents API.

Payment flow

In most cases, the Payment Intents API offers more flexibility and integration options.

Charges API	Payment Intents API
Collect the customer’s payment information in the browser with Elements. Tokenize the payment information with Stripe.js. Perform a request to send the token to your server. Use the token to create a charge on your server with the desired amount and currency. Fulfill the customer’s order if payment is successful.	Create a PaymentIntent on your server with the desired amount and currency. Send the PaymentIntent’s client secret to the client side. Collect the customer’s payment information in the browser with Elements. Use Stripe.js or the mobile SDKs to handle 3D Secure and complete the payment on the client. Use webhooks to fulfill the customer’s order if the payment is successful.

Refunds

To refund a payment through the API, create a Refund and provide the ID of the charge to be refunded.

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To refund part of a payment, provide an amount parameter, as an integer in cents (or the charge currency’s smallest currency unit).

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Apple Pay

When your customer approves the payment, your app receives a PKPayment instance containing their encrypted card details by implementing the PKPaymentAuthorizationViewControllerDelegate methods.

Use the createTokenWithPayment SDK method to turn the PKPayment into a Stripe Token
Use this Token to create a charge.

CheckoutViewController.swift

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extension CheckoutViewController: PKPaymentAuthorizationViewControllerDelegate {

 func paymentAuthorizationViewController(_ controller: PKPaymentAuthorizationViewController, didAuthorizePayment payment: PKPayment, handler: @escaping (PKPaymentAuthorizationResult) -> Void) {
 // Convert the PKPayment into a Token
 STPAPIClient.shared.createToken(withPayment: payment) { token, error in
 guard let token = token else {
 // Handle the error
 return
 }
 let tokenID = token.tokenId
 // Send the token identifier to your server to create a Charge...
 // If the server responds successfully, set self.paymentSucceeded to YES
 }
 }

 func paymentAuthorizationViewControllerDidFinish(_ controller: PKPaymentAuthorizationViewController) {

Dynamic statement descriptor

By default, your Stripe account’s statement descriptor appears on customer statements whenever you charge their card. Additionally, you can set the statement descriptor dynamically on every charge request with the statement_descriptor argument on the Charge object.

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Statement descriptors are limited to 22 characters, can’t use the special characters <, >, ', ", or *, and must not consist solely of numbers.

When setting the statement descriptor dynamically on credit and debit card charges, the dynamic portion is appended to the settlement merchant’s statement descriptor (separated by an * and an empty space). For example, a statement descriptor for a business, named FreeCookies, that includes the kind of cookie purchased might look like the related setting* the related setting.

The * and empty space count towards the 22 character limit and Stripe automatically allots 10 characters for the dynamic statement descriptor. This means that the settlement merchant’s descriptor might be truncated if it’s longer than 10 characters (assuming the dynamic statement descriptor is also greater than 10 characters). If the dynamic statement descriptor is also greater than 10 characters, both descriptors are truncated at 10 characters.

If you’re having issues with the character limits, you can set a shortened descriptor in the Stripe Dashboard to shorten the settlement merchant’s descriptor. This allows more room for the dynamic statement descriptor. The shortened descriptor:

Replaces the settlement merchant’s statement descriptor when using dynamic descriptors.
Can be between 2 and 10 characters.

Note

If your account’s statement descriptor is longer than 10 characters, set a shortened descriptor in the Dashboard or use statement_descriptor_prefix. This prevents your statement descriptor from being truncated in unpredictable ways.

If you’re not sure what the statement descriptors look like when they’re combined, you can check them in the Stripe Dashboard.

Storing information in metadata

Stripe supports adding metadata to the most common requests you make, such as processing charges. Metadata isn’t shown to customers or factored into whether or not a charge is declined or blocked by our fraud prevention system.

Through metadata, you can associate other information—meaningful to you—with Stripe activity. Any metadata you include is viewable in the Dashboard (for example, when looking at the page for an individual charge), and is also available in common reports and exports. As an example, your store’s order ID can be attached to the charge used to pay for that order. Doing so allows you, your accountant, or your finance team to easily reconcile charges in Stripe to orders in your system.

If you’re using Radar, consider passing any additional customer information and order information as metadata. By doing so, you can write Radar rules using metadata attributes and have more information about the payment available within the Dashboard which can expedite your review process.

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Caution

Don’t store any sensitive information (personally identifiable information, card details, and so on) as metadata or in the charge’s description parameter.

Declines

If you want your integration to respond to payment failures automatically, you can access a charge’s outcome in two ways.

Handle the API error that’s returned when a payment fails. For blocked and card issuer-declined payments, the error includes the charge’s ID, which you can then use to retrieve the charge.
Use webhooks to monitor status updates. For example, the charge. failed event triggers when a payment is unsuccessful.