Activating a Card
This guide explains how to activate physical cards using the Activate Card endpoint. Do not follow this procedure to activate virtual cards; instead, use the Modify Status endpoint if necessary. Most virtual cards are active upon creation.
As an anti-fraud measure, physical cards must be activated by the cardholder prior to use. (A Digital First card is activated automatically upon creation but not when reissued.) You determine the card-activation method for cardholders in cooperation with your bank and Galileo at the time you set up your program. This method may be through Galileo's IVR, on your web site or mobile app, or by another method. If you choose the IVR option you do not need to follow this procedure.
Note
For Digital First cards you should not follow this procedure, because the cards are already activated upon creation. Instead, follow the instructions in Protecting the physical card in the Setup for Digital First guide.
Result of calling Activate Card
When Activate Card has run successfully, the card is changed to status: N (active). If the CANOC parameter is set, the cardholder's other active cards have been canceled. If temporary cards were issued and the TEMPC parameter is set, the temporary cards have been canceled. (See Galileo setup for more information.)
Parameters
This table explains the parameters that are specific to the Activate Card endpoint. See the Activate Card endpoint reference for details.
| Parameter | Usage |
|---|---|
accountNo | Pass the PRN, PAN, or CAD. If you pass the PRN you may also want to request cardNumberLastFour from the cardholder to select the correct card. To pass in the PAN you must be PCI compliant. |
cardExpiryDate | Cardholder-provided. Use this value to test against the card to be activated. |
cardSecurityCode | Cardholder-provided. Use this value to test against the card to be activated. |
cardNumberLastFour | Cardholder-provided. If the cardholder has more than one card associated with their account, and if you passed PRN as accountNo, use this parameter to ensure that the correct card is selected. |
deactivateTemporaryCards | If you issued one or more temporary cards while the cardholder waited for the physical card to arrive in the mail, pass 1 to deactivate those cards. This applies to cards that are associated with the account of the card that is being activated (same PRN), not cards that are associated with other accounts that the account holder has. |
Card-activation workflow
This flowchart shows the logical progression of the Activate Card endpoint. The actual sequence of events in the Galileo system may vary.
- Retrieve cardholder input, populate the Activate Card endpoint, and send.
- Galileo performs a number of preliminary checks. Failures return the status codes shown in the diagram. Consult the Status codes table for next steps.
- Galileo checks for a card with the
accountNothat has an emboss record instatus: Y. Failure to find such an emboss record returnsstatus: 467-02. - Galileo verifies that the card's account is not in an improper status:
- If it is in a status that is specified in the CRDBL parameter,
status: 467-06is returned. - If it is in
status: F(fraud),status: 467-05is returned. - If it is in
status: R(charged off),status: 467-04is returned.
- If it is in a status that is specified in the CRDBL parameter,
- If the data the customer supplied matches the data on record, Galileo activates the card and sends the webhook
BACT: card_activated, if you are configured to receive it. If there is no match, Galileo returnsstatus: 467-01. - If
deactivateTemporaryCards: 1, Galileo attempts to deactivate any temporary cards that were issued. If Galileo cannot deactivate the cards,status: 467-03is returned. If the cards are successfully deactivated ordeactivateTemporaryCardsis not set,status: 0is returned.
Sample endpoint request and response
Consult the Activate Card endpoint to see how to build the API request and to see the response schema.
Status codes
Consult this table to see an explanation of what each status code means and which next steps to take, if any.
| Status code | Description | Next steps |
|---|---|---|
0 | Success | None |
2 | Invalid parameter. accountNo is not in the correct PAN/PRN/CAD format. | Retry with correct format in accountNo. |
4 | System error. Unexpected error in the endpoint. | Contact Galileo for troubleshooting. |
12 | Invalid customer account. The accountNo is not found on the Galileo system. | Retry with correct account number. |
24 | Duplicate transaction. | None. Duplicate API calls have no effect on the Galileo system. |
467-01 | No cards with an emboss status: Y match the cardholder-provided input. | Cardholder must supply correct card data. |
467-02 | No cards with an emboss status: Y match the PRN or customer ID. | Retry with valid PRN or customer ID. Your product settings determine which value the system searches on. |
467-03 | Card successfully activated but temporary cards could not be deactivated. | Verify that your product parameters are correct, or send Modify Status calls with type: 2 for the temporary cards. |
467-04 | Account is in status: R (charged-off) and cannot be modified. | Inform the cardholder that the card cannot be activated. |
467-05 | Account is in status: F (fraud) and cannot be modified. | Inform the cardholder that the card cannot be activated. |
467-06 | Account is in a status that is specified in the CRDBL parameter. | Inform the cardholder that the card cannot be activated. |
-1 | System failure. Possibly a network or database issue. | Consult the log to see which corrections to make. |
View the activated card
Call the Get Card or Get Account Cards endpoint and check card_status.
Galileo setup
These product/program parameters affect card-activation behavior. Galileo sets these parameters according to your use case.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| CANCS | Used in conjunction with CANOC, it specifies the status that a card must be in to be canceled when a new card is activated. Default: N,X,Y,W |
| CANOC | When this parameter is set to Y, cards that belong to the same cardholder and that are in a status specified in CANCS are changed to status C (canceled) when the new card is activated. When this parameter is not set, the cardholder's other cards are not canceled. Set this parameter at the product level so that cards with the same product ID are canceled. Set this parameter at the program level so that cards with the same program ID (including different product IDs) are canceled. |
| CRDBL | Contains statuses of cards that should not be activated. |
| TEMPC | Cancels temporary instant-issue cards when the personalized card is activated. The instant-issue card and the personalized card must have the same balance ID but different product IDs. Set this parameter on the instant-issue product. |
Updated 3 months ago