Do saved cards keep working when a merchant changes acquirer?

They do when the card is stored as a network token that is not tied to one provider. On NORBr, the token captured on the first customer-initiated payment is kept in the NORBr Vault as a universal network token, reusable across every provider, so the merchant's returning customers do not have to enter their card again after a change of acquirer.

The problem with processor tokens

When a card is saved through a processor, the token refers to that processor's vault. If the merchant moves to another acquirer, the token is useless there, and every returning customer has to enter the card again. Many merchants stay with an acquirer they are unhappy with for that reason alone.

Network tokens and the universal token

• On the first customer-initiated payment, the card is tokenized as a network token by the scheme.
• The network token is kept in the NORBr Vault as a universal token, reusable across every connected provider.
• Routing rules decide which acquirer processes each payment, and the token follows.

What changes for merchants

A change of acquirer is a routing change. Returning customers keep paying with one click, subscriptions keep billing, and the merchant never asks anyone to re-enter a card. For operators, this is the condition for multi-acquiring to work in practice: without portable tokens, every routing decision is limited to new customers. With them, the whole book can move when a provider's pricing or performance changes.