Mastercard Transaction Link Identifier (TLID)

Mastercard assigns a Transaction Link Identifier (TLID) to card-not-present authorizations. Payment gateways, acquirers, and processors use the TLID to link each Merchant-Initiated Transaction (MIT) — such as a subscription renewal or other recurring card charge — back to the original Customer-Initiated Transaction (CIT) that established the credential-on-file agreement.

This page describes what TLID means for Chargebee merchants who collect Mastercard card payments for subscriptions and other stored-credential flows.

Do merchants need to configure TLID in Chargebee?

No. You do not need to implement, enable, or configure TLID in Chargebee. Chargebee does not expose a site setting, checkout option, or public API field for you to supply or manage TLID values.

Subscription renewals and other off-session card charges in Chargebee are Merchant-Initiated Transactions. Where a gateway returns a TLID on the original card payment, confirm with that gateway that the TLID is sent on later linked MITs. You do not enter it in Chargebee.

Gateway-specific behavior

How TLID is applied depends on which gateway processes your initial and renewal card payments.

TLID handling on Stripe

When the customer's initial payment and later subscription renewals both run on Stripe, Stripe can return a Mastercard TLID on the card charge. You do not pass TLID through Chargebee APIs or checkout. Confirm with Stripe whether that TLID is sent on later merchant-initiated charges for your account. Stripe chaining the network transaction ID on a same-processor renewal is a separate identifier.

TLID handling on NMI

For Network Merchants Incorporated (NMI), you do not configure TLID in Chargebee. Confirm with NMI how the TLID from the original Mastercard authorization is stored and sent on later recurring charges.

TLID and PayPal

PayPal wallet payments are not Mastercard card payments, so they are outside this TLID flow. Card payments through PayPal Commerce, PayPal Payments Pro, and Payflow Pro are card charges. Confirm TLID handling for those card payments with PayPal.

TLID on other card gateways

If you use another card gateway with Chargebee, confirm TLID readiness and linkage behavior with that gateway or your processor. Chargebee does not require additional merchant-side TLID configuration for subscription billing beyond your existing gateway integration.

Card network and regional rules can overlap with stored credentials and recurring billing. See PSD2 and Strong Customer Authentication for Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) and 3D Secure (3DS) in applicable regions, and Mastercard Trial Rules for Mastercard subscription transparency requirements.

Articles & FAQs

Do I need to configure Mastercard TLID in Chargebee?