How to write the card authorization wording your clients agree to
Put your own words, and your own company name, in front of every client who saves a card, with a live preview of exactly what they will read, under Settings > Billing & Pricing > Card Authorization.
Where the page lives
Settings > Billing & Pricing > Card Authorization, its own settings page. Open it before you turn on card saving for clients, so the wording is already the way you want it when the first client sees it.
Authorization wording
Your wording is the sentence each client reads and agrees to before saving a card. Leave the box blank and the built-in wording is shown: it says the client authorizes your company to keep the card on file with the payment processor and to charge it for the amount of each invoice as it comes due, until the client removes the card or the service ends. Type your own and it is shown word for word, in every language. Write {company} anywhere your company name should appear and the portal swaps in the name. Once you have typed your own wording, a three-dot menu appears beside Save with "Use the built-in wording", which clears the box so the built-in sentence is used again.
Billed-by identity line
The legal entity your clients are authorizing, for example "Acme IT Services LLC". It appears as a "Billed by" line under the wording and is recorded with every authorization. Leave it blank and the line is left out; it is never guessed from your company name. It is the same setting as the Billed-by line on the Stripe integration page, so change it in either place.
Save
Saves the wording and the billed-by line together. Nothing reaches your clients until you click it; typing only updates the preview on this page.
What your client sees
The same block your client sees above the card form in the client portal, drawn by the same component. It updates as you type, before you save, so you can read your wording the way a client will. When the wording box is empty it shows the built-in sentence. Under it, the statement line is read from your own Stripe account and cannot be edited here; it is left out when your account has none.
What the card networks expect this to say
A short checklist the page shows next to your wording: that the client agrees you may keep the card on file and charge it, how the amount is worked out, and how the client ends the arrangement. The built-in wording touches all three. If you write your own, cover the three yourself, since the portal shows your text exactly as written and never checks it.
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Why it works this way: How to write the card authorization wording your clients agree to
A saved card keeps its own copy of the sentence. The portal records the exact wording the client read when they pressed save, so changing the wording here never rewrites a card someone already saved. New wording applies to the next person who saves a card.
If a client is on the add-card page at the moment you save a change, their attempt is refused and they see "The authorization wording changed while this page was open. Reload the page and read it again before saving a card." That way no card is saved against a sentence the client never saw.
The card form on the client portal is Stripe's own payment form, so there is no field in the portal for a card number. What the portal keeps is Stripe's reference to the card, plus its network, last four digits and expiry date, which is what the card list shows. This page makes no statement about what your business is or is not required to do to meet card rules; ask your payment processor or auditor about that.
Other ways to do this: How to write the card authorization wording your clients agree to
Stripe integration page
Open Integrations > Stripe and edit the Billed-by identity line there instead.
Questions this page answers
What is this page for?
It holds the sentence your clients read and agree to before they save a card on file with you. That sentence is your authorization to keep the card and charge it, so it is yours to write - this is where you make it say what your business actually does. The preview below the box is the real block your client sees, not an approximation of it.
If I change the wording, what happens to clients who already saved a card?
Nothing changes for them, and nothing is rewritten behind them. Every authorization we record keeps a copy of the exact sentence that person read, so a card saved last year is still evidenced by last year’s words. New wording applies to the next person who saves a card. If someone is sitting on the card page at the moment you save a change, their attempt is refused with a note asking them to reload and read it again - better a second read than a record of consent to a sentence they never saw.
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