negative10xprogrammer

[novel scarab]

Hi 👋

There are multiple ways to add or attach a Payment Method to a customer. How are you creating the payment methods?

[torn shell]

Hmm, havent thought of that. At first i created customers with paymentmethods (so just the paymentmethod token)

What is the preferred way of creating payment methods?

I think it happens at checkout, and since I use stripe elements and my flow assumes the client has fetched a paymentmethod token from stripe, I think I will be passing this token into the backend as usual

so... payment method token

[novel scarab]

Okay well Tokens have been deprecated for a while now. How are you processing payments? Do you use Payment Intents?

[torn shell]

Ah ok... yes. So what is the alternative then? I'm, not sure if token is what i mean

paymentmethod is what i mean

a string object

[novel scarab]

The simple answer to your question is to use the Payment Method attach API: https://stripe.com/docs/api/payment_methods/attach

But it is much more simple and effective to use Setup Intents to create & attach the payment method to a customer.
https://stripe.com/docs/payments/save-and-reuse

OR

[torn shell]

I do that in another flow

[novel scarab]

Save the payment method when your customer makes a payment
https://stripe.com/docs/payments/save-during-payment

[torn shell]

the setup intent thing

[novel scarab]

Okay well that will create and attach payment methods to customers.

If you have already created payment methods you can use the attach API I linked above, as long as the payment method has not been charged

[torn shell]

yeah alright, the customer alraedy exists

[novel scarab]

the customer alraedy exists
That doesn't change anything

[torn shell]

Gotcha thanks!

[novel scarab]

Sure thing, happy to help 🙂

[torn shell]

@novel scarabjust to be sure, this means I could simply attach customerId when I create paymentintents and that's that?

What will happen next time a paymentintent is created with that customerId and the same paymentmethod?

will stripe dedupe it?

[novel scarab]

The save during payment means you both create & save the payment method at the same time as collecting payment.

If the customer comes back you can re-use the existing payment method.

What is it you are actually trying to do?

[torn shell]

my current flow is like this:

stripe customer is created upon user registration. So all users in our system is a stripe customer. No paymnet methods at this point tho.

Upon purchase/checkout -> client, stripe elements. They input their card details, a paymentmethod is returned from stripe?

this paymentmethod retrieved from stripe is sent to our backend, and we use this to create a paymentintent

Now, obviously I want this to be saved to that customer. And then I ask stripe for that customers payment methods whenever they're in the custom checkout so they dont have to input that info again

this is a viable approach, no?

[novel scarab]

No I don't think so. If you didn't attach the payment method to the customer before the purchase then it's a one-time payment method and is consumed.

But I think you can simplify your approach

[torn shell]

alright, because paymentintent takes customerid

[novel scarab]

If you use the "Save during payment" flow for your initial Checkout it will create the Payment Method and attach it to the customer when you confirm the Payment Intent

[torn shell]

        var options = new PaymentIntentCreateOptions
        {
            Amount = (long)amount * 100,
            Currency = currency.ToString(), // Listing's currency
            PaymentMethodTypes = new List<string> { StripePaymentMethods.Klarna },
            TransferGroup = reservationId.ToString(),
            Customer = customerId
        };

[torn shell]

Hmm ok

But I can still retrieve and use the paymentmethod in the way I outlined above? And your suggestion here means i need to move more logiuc to the client?

[novel scarab]

Okay now there appears to be Connect involved and I don't know what you trying to do. Also you cannot use Klarna payment methods for additonal charges

[torn shell]

No in this case klarna is not for additional charges. I ahve a flag for payment method

so it's not relevant i think. What I'm trying to do is what I outlined above: get paymentmethod from client stripe elements, pass it to our backend, create paymentintent

but i want to "remember" that paymentmethod

[novel scarab]

Yup, It will get saved to the Customer object so you can retrieve it from the API but you can also save it to your DB.

[torn shell]

Yes ok so this will work? Because you said above

"No I don't think so. If you didn't attach the payment method to the customer before the purchase then it's a one-time payment method and is consumed."

[novel scarab]

Correct, but if you use the flow I linked above it will attach the PM and it is designed specifically to be reused

[torn shell]

so both flows work but the one you suggest is more correct?

and last question, what happens if every time I create a payment intent its the same customer and paymentmethod? will stripe ignore the duplicate?

[novel scarab]

so both flows work but the one you suggest is more correct?
This flow is more correct <https://stripe.com/docs/payments/save-during-payment >

Even if the same customer provides the same card info, it will create a new Payment Method

[torn shell]

ah ok gotcha.

thanks, that clears it all up