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A saved payment method keeps the same ID for its whole life. When a customer’s card is reissued, re-expires, or has its network token refreshed by the card network, PayNext updates that payment method in place—it does not create a new one. That keeps your customer records and subscriptions intact across a card reissue, without asking the customer for anything. It also means the details behind an ID you stored can change.
If you cache card details such as last4, the expiry, or the brand against a payment method ID, subscribe to customer.payment_method.updated and refresh your copy when it fires. Nothing else tells you the card behind the ID changed.

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Lifecycle status

Every payment method returns a status. For a card, status describes the physical card. For Cash App, Pix, PayPal Wallet, and Venmo, it follows the mandate or billing agreement: revoking it in the provider’s own app sets revoked. Apple Pay and Google Pay wallet tokens are managed by the wallet and stay active.

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Network tokens

A stands in for the card number when charging. The card networks keep it pointed at the customer’s current card, so recurring charges keep working after a reissue, and authorization rates are typically higher than with a raw card number. Cards with a network token return it under details.network_token, with its own status: details.network_token.last_synced_at tells you when that state was last refreshed from the card network.
A card marked expired can still be chargeable. The card status and the network token status are independent. While the network token is active, recurring charges go through it, and the printed expiry on the card no longer matters. Prompt the customer for a new card only when neither is usable.

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Card Account Updater

card_updater shows whether a card is enrolled in the card networks’ account updater programs. When enrolled, a reissued card number and expiry are pushed to PayNext and applied to the existing payment method. Enrollment depends on your processor supporting the service. See your processor’s integration page for availability. fpan_out_of_sync is informational: PayNext knows the stored card number is out of date and a refresh is on the way. Don’t gate charging or customer prompts on it.

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Live values and charge-time values

The same payment method reads differently depending on where you see it: status, card_updater, and fpan_out_of_sync are always the current values. details.network_token.status and details.network_token.last_synced_at are frozen at charge time on a payment, so a settled payment always shows what it was actually charged with.

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What happens when a payment method dies

When neither the card nor its network token is usable, or the customer revoked a mandate, PayNext stops attempting charges rather than sending a run of guaranteed declines. Subscriptions stay past_due and wait for a recovery. See Recover Subscriptions.

Charge returning customers

Use a saved payment method for a follow-up charge.