For merchants who store client payment credentials for future use, Mastercard, Visa, and Discover have introduced a series of mandates aimed at improving transparency and security. These requirements provide greater visibility into how credentials are initially stored and subsequently used, helping all parties better assess transaction risk. Including these details correctly often leads to higher approval rates and a smoother experience for the cardholder.
Kulturra is committed to supporting these mandates and improving the overall customer experience. As part of the Spring '25 Release, the system now includes support for Merchant-Initiated Transactions (MIT) and Credential-on-File (COF) for CardConnect.
This guide provides information and examples on how the MIT/COF indicators—ecomind, cof, cofscheduled, cofpermission, and profile—work across various payment scenarios.
Key Terms
1. ecomind: Transaction origin indicator
E: E-commerce (one-time)
R: Recurring
T: Telephone
2. cof: identifies who initiated the transaction
C: Customer-initiated
M: Merchant-initiated
3. cofscheduled: Indicates if the payment is recurring or one-time
Y: Yes - recurring payment
N: No - one-time payment
4. cofpermission: Indicates the cardholder's permission to store the card
Y: Yes
N: No
5. profile: Tells the system to create or use a saved customer profile
Y: Yes
<profileid>/<acctid>
Sample Use Cases
Use Case I: Recurring Payments (Use Profile on Recurring = true)
1. Create New Recurring
2. Invoice Now, First Recurring payment
3. Pay Invoice online/ enable auto pay
ecomind: R
cof: C
cofscheduled: Y
cofpermission: Y
profile: Y
4. Invoice Now, auto-pay for subsequent
ecomind: R
cof: M
cofscheduled: Y
5. Create a new invoice not linked to recurring for the same customer. Pay online using a stored profile.
ecomind: E
cof: C
cofscheduled: N
6. Create a new invoice not linked to recurring for the same customer. Pay inside SF using stored profile.
ecomind: E
cof: M
cofscheduled: N
7. Create a new invoice not linked to recurring for the same customer. Pay online using a different card.
ecomind: E
cof: C
cofscheduled: N
cofpermission: Y
profile: Y
8. Create a new invoice not linked to recurring for the same customer. Pay online using the card on #7
ecomind: E
cof: C
cofscheduled: N
9. Create a new invoice not linked to recurring for the same customer. Pay inside SF using card on #7
ecomind: E
cof: M
cofscheduled: N
Use Case II: Create Profile Online, Then Pay Online
1. Create Profile online
cofpermission: Y
2. Pay an invoice online using that profile
ecomind: E
cof: C
cofscheduled: N
Use Case III: Recurring Payments (Use Profile on Recurring = false)
Create New Recurring
Invoice Now, First recurring payment
Pay Invoice online/ enable auto pay
ecomind: R
cof: C
cofscheduled: Y
cofpermission: Y
profile: Y
4. Invoice now, auto-pay for subsequent
ecomind: R
cof: M
cofscheduled: Y
5. Create a new invoice not linked to recurring for the same customer. Pay online using stored profile
ecomind: E
cof: C
cofscheduled: N
6. Create a new invoice not linked to recurring for the same customer. Pay inside SF using stored profile
ecomind: E
cof: M
cofscheduled: N
Use Case IV: Link Stored Profile to Recurring Invoice
Create a profile online
cofpermission: Y
Link it to a recurring invoice and enable auto-pay
ecomind: R
cof: M
cofscheduled: Y
Use Case V: Installment Plan with Auto-Pay
Pay the first installment online with a new card and enable auto-pay.
ecomind: R
cof: C
cofscheduled: Y
cofpermission: Y
profile: Y
2. Succeeding installments on autopay.
ecomind: R
cof: M
cofscheduled: Y
Reference
Full API reference: CardPointe Auth API
Availability: Spring '25