Linking repeat payments to the first payment

From 23 October 2026 Mastercard expects merchant initiated payments and refunds to carry the Transaction Link Identifier (TLID) from the original customer payment, alongside the existing trace ID. Try it in two minutes. All values are mock and the decline rule is simplified for illustration.

1. The customer pays once

Merchant stores the link references

No payment yet.

2. Later, the merchant charges or refunds

API style:

Request

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Result

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What happened

The point: with scheme fields per request, every integration has to learn, store and resend each new identifier. With one lifecycle reference, the API returns a single reference on the first payment and attaches whatever the scheme requires on every later payment, so the next mandate needs no merchant change.