Migrating Tokens to Stripe
Stripe only imports the customer and card data, and are unable to import data related to subscriptions/billing. This would be handled by the merchant after the migration. Stripe's after-import JSON file format that is shared after completing an import can be referenced here: https://stripe.com/docs/security/data-migrations/imports#complete-migration.
This is for mapping the prior processor customer IDs to the new Stripe customer IDs and tokens. This is the only file that Stripe is able to provide. Any additional information stored on the customer record can be exported by the merchant either via the Stripe API or Dashboard.
Stripe typically estimates up to 10 business days to import data once they have received valid data from your current processor but the time to import will vary based on the amount of records you'd like to import.
For your current processor, they need to know Stripe has the following mandatory fields for cards:
- old_customer_id [unique customer ID field from prior system]
- card_number (legal values: 15 or 16 digits, no other characters) [full credit card number]
- card_exp_month (legal values: numbers 1 through 12) [card expiration date month]
- card_exp_year (legal values: 2 or 4 digit year) [card expiration date year]
The following fields are optional for cards:
- stripe_customer_id [applicable only if the customer already exists in live-mode in your Stripe account]
- old_card_id [unique ID for the credit card from the prior system]
- description [metadata field]
- email [customer email address]
- phone [customer phone number]
- is_default (legal values: TRUE and FALSE) [identifies whether card is the default card]
- name [customer first and last name]
- line1 [address line 1]
- line2 [address line 2]
- city [address city]
- state [address state]
- postal [address zipcode/postal code]
- country [address country]
You'll want to coordinate the communication between your current process and Stripe. Here is how you can get started at Stripe.
To get started, log into your account at Stripe and go to the support/help area. Start a live chat or send an email to support@stripe.com.
You will need to inform Stripe that you are wanting to migrate CC/ACH information from your current gateway into Stripe. You will be transferred to Stripe's migration team. Here are the required pieces of information they will request.
- What type of payment data do you want to import (credit cards, ACH, SEPA, etc.)?
- Approximately how many customer and payment detail records do you plan to import?
Stripe will then reply with this general information;
The first step from here is to get in touch with your prior payments provider(s) to request an export of your data to our service.
Once prepared, data from your prior provider must be encrypted with Stripe's PGP key and uploaded securely via SFTP. If they have any questions, feel free to include them in this thread or have them contact me at support-migrations@stripe.com and reference ticket #xxxxxxxxxx.
A more detailed description of the steps involved in migrating to our service can be found in our documentation. We typically estimate up to 10 business days to import data once we've received valid data from your current processor but the time to import will vary based on the amount of records you'd like to import. We can only import payment data and customer details, and cannot import payment history or subscriptions.
We also need to verify the Stripe account into which you want us to import the card details by following these steps:
- Log into your dashboard as the account owner or other team member
- Navigate to our support form and send us an email with the subject line "Attention Migrations Team - Ticket #xxxxxxxxxxx". In the body of the message, state: "I approve importing data into <Account Name>," where <Account Name> is the name of the account.
You'll want to share this specific tid-bit with your current processor.
Once prepared, data from your prior provider must be encrypted with Stripe's PGP key and uploaded securely via SFTP. If they have any questions, feel free to include them in this thread or have them contact me at support-migrations@stripe.com and reference ticket #xxxxxxxxxx.
This should get you started on the journey to import tokens from your payment gateway into Stripe.
Migrating Tokens Away From Stripe
Create a support ticket inside of Stripe and explain that you wish to export your customer card information over to your new payment gateway. A good resource from Stripe's documentation is here,
https://stripe.com/docs/security/data-migrations/exports
To do this securely, Stripe prepares an encrypted JSON export file containing your data, including the card details of your customers, email addresses, and any attached metadata.
Thought needs to be given to the timing of the secure transfer with your new processor, who uses this file to import the data into their system. You can start the migration process by contacting Stripe with the name of your new payment processor.