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PCI DSS prohibits long-term storage of CVV data. When a card is tokenized with CVV, you need a retention policy that defines how long the CVV is kept and how many times it can be used before it is automatically cleared.
The retention policy governs the CVV only. The card details without the CVV can be sent any number of times to any destination — the policy places no limit on relays that do not include the CVV.

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How It Works

CVV retention is not part of the tokenization request itself. It is a separate step that happens after tokenization:
  1. Card is tokenized (via any tokenization method) with CVV included.
  2. You have 60 minutes to set a per-token CVV retention policy via the Set CVV Retention Policy endpoint.
  3. If you don’t set one, the account-wide default policy is applied automatically. If no account-wide default exists, the system default applies: the CVV is kept for one relay or one month, whichever comes first.
This applies to every tokenization method that captures CVV.
After the 60-minute window closes, the policy can no longer be modified. To effectively set a fresh policy later, get a token with a newly stored CVV — each of these opens a new 60-minute window:

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Policy Levels

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Policy Types

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Destination Types

Per-destination policies support these destination types:
One additional destination type, Any, is managed by the system: it represents the system default applied when no other destination policy is set. It may appear when reading a token’s policy but is reserved for system use — do not set it manually.

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Auto-Delete Card on CVV Expiry

You can optionally configure the policy to delete the entire card token when its CVV is cleared, using the DeleteCardUponCvvCleanup option. Use this when a token without CVV has no value in your workflow.

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Setting the Account-Wide Default

To set a default CVV retention policy that applies automatically to all new tokens in your account:
  1. Log in to the PCI Booking portal.
  2. Navigate to Booker Settings > CVV Store Rules.
  3. Under Storage Period, set the duration that CVV is stored (e.g., 12 months). Maximum is 4 years / 48 months.
  4. Under Destinations, define the approved list of destinations where CVV can be relayed. For each destination, specify:
    • Destination type (see Destination Types above)
    • Destination value (e.g., hostname, IP address)
    • Quota (number of times the CVV can be relayed to this destination)
You can configure up to 50 different destinations. Each destination allows a quota of up to 50 relays.
If you use destination-based retention with hostnames, make sure those hostnames are also included in your relay restrictions (if configured).
Per-token policies set via the API override the account-wide default for that specific token.

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Managing Per-Token Policies

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Tracking CVV Usage

Relay operations that use a token’s CVV return two response headers reporting its retention state: You can also query usage at any time via Get CVV Retention Policy, which returns a usage count per destination.

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Next Steps

CVV Management

Manage CVV data within a token: check status, capture separately, or clear manually.

Capture Cards Overview

All tokenization methods.