Save payment methods
Last updated: July 9, 2026
Save payment methods so payers don't have to enter details for future transactions. Payers can check out faster or pay without being present after they agree to save a payment method.
A payment method is saved and exchanged for a unique token through tokenization. The token is stored securely and used instead of the original account number.
The benefits of using saved payment tokens include:
- Increased security by reducing opportunities for data theft.
- Simplified payment processing.
- Helps maintain the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance.
- With a transaction - The customer's payment method is saved during checkout. They can select it again at checkout for faster transactions.
- Without a transaction - The customer's payment method is saved without checkout. Customers don't have to be present for future transactions. A common use case is offering a free trial of a product and charging customers later.
- Save payment methods at the platform level - Supports a payer using a saved payment method with many merchants. For example, a payer saves their payment method on a marketplace's website. The payer can then use their saved payment method with any merchant on the marketplace.
- Save payment methods at the merchant level - Supports a payer using a saved payment method with one merchant. For example, a payer saves their payment method on a merchant's website. The merchant's ecommerce is hosted by a third party. The third party saves payment methods for the merchant.
PayPal can save the following payment methods to the vault:
- Credit and debit cards
- PayPal Wallets
- Venmo
To save credit and debit cards, ensure you are approved to process Expanded Checkout.
See supported countries:
- Australia
- Austria
- Belgium
- Bulgaria
- Canada
- China
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Hong Kong
- Hungary
- Ireland
- Italy
- Latvia
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Singapore
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- United Kingdom
- United States
Enable PayPal vaulting in your Developer Dashboard for production.
- Log in to the PayPal Developer Dashboard.
- In the navigation menu, use the Sandbox | Live toggle to select Live.
- Access Apps & Credentials.
- Select the production REST API app name.
- To enable vaulting for your account:
- Go to Features > Payment capabilities.
- In the Payment capabilities menu, select the Save payment methods toggle to enable vaulting.
- To add the ability to save PayPal and Venmo payment methods:
- Go to Features > Payment methods.
- In the Payment methods menu, select the PayPal and Venmo toggle so you can save PayPal and Venmo payment options.
PayPal requires Risk Data Acquisition (RDA) to reduce fraud. You must implement risk data collection for all customer-initiated transactions (CIT) that use PayPal and Venmo Payment Tokens. Payment attempts that are missing RDA data are likely to be declined due to insufficient risk identifiers. Use the PayPal
FraudNet and
Magnes libraries to collect and pass RDA data during payment processing.
Before you can save payment methods, you'll need to onboard sellers.