When a shopper saves their card during a payment (for example, a Hosted Payment Page or Virtual Terminal sale with save-card enabled), WinkPG vaults the card and returns a reusable payment token. You can charge that token later without ever collecting or storing the card number yourself, which keeps the reorder and card-on-file flows out of your PCI scope.

The token you use for this is the public reference: a single opaque handle that is both what you receive and what you charge with.

Where the token appears

The public reference is surfaced in two places whenever a transaction tokenizes a card:

• The synchronous transaction response at responseData.tokenResult.publicReference.
• The transaction-completed webhook at data.responseData.tokenResult.publicReference (see the Webhook Integration guide for the envelope and signature scheme).

Both carry the same value. It is present only when the transaction actually saved a card; on a non-tokenizing transaction the tokenResult object is omitted.

{
  "responseData": {
    "resultCode": 1,
    "resultMessage": "Approved",
    "tokenResult": {
      "publicReference": "pt_9fKq2ZmB7tLxW3aH5nR8cV1s"
    }
  }
}

What the token is

• Opaque and self-describing. It always begins with the pt_ prefix followed by a URL-safe random string. Treat the whole value as an opaque handle: store it and send it back verbatim. Do not parse, split, or infer anything from its contents.
• Not a card number and not an internal id. The public reference is deliberately not shaped like a card number, and it is not the gateway's internal vault identifier. It is the only token identifier WinkPG emits to you; the internal identifier never leaves the gateway.
• Stable. The same saved card keeps the same public reference, so you can store it against your customer record and reuse it across orders.

Charging with the token

To charge a saved card, send the public reference in the payment token field of a sale or authorization request instead of raw card data:

{
  "tokenData": {
    "token": "pt_9fKq2ZmB7tLxW3aH5nR8cV1s"
  },
  "invoiceData": {
    "amounts": { "base": 49.00 }
  }
}

WinkPG resolves the token to the stored card, runs the charge, and returns the usual transaction response.

Send the amount as base, not total. total is calculated by WinkPG as base + tip + tax + shipping + convenience. It is returned on the response; it is not a way to set the amount charged, and a total that disagrees with the components you sent does not change what is charged. If you do send total, it is treated as an integrity check on those components. Once checksum enforcement is switched on for your environment, a disagreement is rejected with an error naming both values; until then it is recorded for review and the charge proceeds for the component sum. Either way, send a total only if you want that check, and always read the total on the response as the authoritative amount charged: fees the gateway adds after accepting your request (a surcharge, or a convenience fee it computes) are outside the check and appear only there.

• Cardholder-initiated (CIT) charges (the shopper is present and choosing to pay with the saved card) work directly with the token.
• Merchant-initiated (MIT) charges (recurring billing, delayed captures, account top-ups where the shopper is not present) additionally require captured stored-credential consent. A merchant-initiated charge without it is declined with stored_credential_consent_required. Capture consent at the time the card is first saved so later unattended charges succeed.

Charging with a companion cardData

A token charge does not need a cardData object at all: the token is the tender, and WinkPG resolves the card number and expiration from the vault. You may still send one to carry address-verification fields, which is the only reason to include it:

{
  "tokenData": {
    "token": "pt_9fKq2ZmB7tLxW3aH5nR8cV1s"
  },
  "cardData": {
    "billingAddress": {
      "address1": "1 Market Street",
      "postalCode": "94105"
    }
  },
  "invoiceData": {
    "amounts": { "base": 49.00 }
  }
}

Two things to know about that companion object:

• Send AVS fields only. A cardData on a token charge should carry the billing address, and optionally the cardholder name, email, or phone. Do not put a card number, track data, or a reader payload in it: the token already identifies the card, and a request that supplies both a token and raw card data is rejected as ambiguous about which one to charge.
• You do not need to set isStoredPayment. WinkPG stamps that flag itself while resolving the token. It is an output of token resolution, not something the caller declares, so leave it out and let the gateway set it.

Do not declare a card-present entryMode (a swipe, chip, or contactless value) on a companion object. Those values assert that a physical card was read on a device, so the request is then held to carrying the reader payload that read produced. Omit entryMode on a token charge.

Treat the token as a credential

Making the public reference chargeable means anyone who holds it can attempt a charge, subject to two protections that always apply: the token is scoped to your merchant account, and merchant-initiated reuse still requires stored-credential consent. The token's shape is not a secret in itself, so:

• Keep the token server-side. Do not embed it in browser code, query strings, or client-visible URLs.
• Store it with the same care you give any reusable credential, and only alongside the customer it belongs to.
• Log it sparingly. It is not card data, but it is a live charging handle.

What not to rely on

Charge only with the publicReference value. Do not attempt to charge using identifiers scraped from a transaction's history or from internal fields: those are not resolvable for charging and are not a supported integration surface. The public reference in the response and webhook is the one supported reusable handle.