Import third-party card data to Square
About importing third-party card data to Square
If you already have customers and their cards saved on file with a current processor, Square can do one-time migrations to move your data from your current processor to your Square account. This process is only for moving sensitive card data from your current processor to Square.
Before you begin
You must work with your prior payment processor to obtain a file of your customer card-on-file data to migrate this information to your Square account. Square can’t work with third parties to obtain this information.
The migration process can only be done with the Square account owner and not with any other authorised individuals.
Square can’t accept raw payment card data and Square can only migrate data from another PCI DSS Level 1-compliant payment processor. Please don’t email Square (or anyone) with payment card details or sensitive customer information.
Square can only accept a single encrypted file from the payment processor, and only the data available in that file can be migrated.
The migration of gift cards, subscriptions or appointments data is not supported through this process. You have to set up billing and subscriptions in your Square account or use an external application.
New customer records are created in your Square account for each customer provided by your current processor.
Square only maps the information given by the external provider. If they don’t provide certain customer information, contact your prior provider.
This import migration is a one-time onboarding process. Square cannot process card imports on an ongoing basis.
For migrations from one Square account to another, this process doesn’t add cards to existing customer profiles, but creates customers in your Square Customer Directory and attaches card-on-file data from your previous account.
The migration process can take up to 15 working days from when the encrypted file is received. Square can’t guarantee migration completion by a specific date.
Learn more about Square’s security practices.
Import third-party card data
Follow the steps below to migrate card-on-file data to your Square account:
Contact Square Support to open a migration request and verify your Square account information. Learn how to Get support at Square.
-
Contact your prior payment processor to request an export of your customer and card data. The export file needs to contain at minimum the customer name, card number and expiry date, but Square can also migrate the following information for each of your customers:
Customer first name
Customer last name
Company
Email address
Phone number
Address
Note (optional)
Card number
Expiry date (MM/YY)
Respond to your open case with Square Support with either the encrypted file or instructions on how to retrieve this file from your prior provider.
Once the card-on-file data is provided to Square, this information will be migrated to your Square account. This process can take up to 15 working days, depending on volume and file size.
Square Support will contact you via email once the migration is complete. A mapping file will be sent to you that links your prior card-on-file data to the new entries in your Square account. The mapping sheet will contain the following information:
external_card_id, square_card_id, card_brand, card_last_4, card_exp_month, card_exp_year, square_card_fingerprint, external_customer_id, square_customer_id.