Use-cases
There are a few use cases for PARs.- Identifying fraud: Because our API does not return the original raw card number back via our API, it’s hard to know if a card
has been used previously in a fraudulent transaction. For example, two transactions with the same masked card number of
4111 11** **** 1111
could be the same number or two different numbers. - Identifying duplicate cards: Similarly, you could use the PAR to determine if the same card is stored twice for a user without needing to see the original number.
Availability
The availability of a PAR depends on a few factors. Firstly, the payment service needs to return the PAR to our system. Secondly, our connector needs to be implemented to pick up the PAR and return it back. When available, thepayment_account_reference
field
is returned as part of any payment_method
on a transaction, Please reach out to
support if your preferred connector does not yet have PAR enabled.
Comparison to fingerprints
Fingerprints and PARs go hand in hand to detect duplicate and fraudulent cards.- PAR has limited availability and depends on the data received back from the payment service, while card fingerprints are available for every card transaction
- PARs represent the underlying account, while a fingerprint represents the actual card number. As a result, the fingerprint will be different when using a digital wallet like Apple Pay or Google Pay.