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Orders, subscriptions and transactions

What to do when a subscription payment fails (automatic and manual retries)

Under Payments › Settings › Subscription, set up to 3 automatic retries with 1, 3, 5 or 7-day gaps and what happens if they all fail. To collect by hand, go to Payments › Subscriptions, open the subscription with the unpaid payment and use Retry Payment with a saved or new card.

Updated on

Before you start

  • You need permission to manage Payments and Subscriptions.
  • Configurable automatic retries are available for subscriptions on NMI, Authorize.net and Square.
  • Manual retry is available for subscriptions on NMI, Authorize.Net, Square and Mercado Pago.
  • To charge a different card, save it on the customer's record first or add it during the retry.
Where to find it

Payments › Settings › Subscription (automatic) · Payments › Subscriptions › (subscription) › Retry Payment (manual)

Step by step

Configure automatic retries

  1. In the left menu, open Payments and click Settings.
  2. Open the Subscription tab.
  3. Choose the number of retries after a failure (up to 3). The default is 3, one day apart.
  4. Choose the gap between retries: 1, 3, 5 or 7 days.
  5. Decide what happens if every retry fails: leave the subscription Unpaid or check the option to move it to Cancelled automatically.
  6. Save. Changes apply to new subscriptions and to those already in a retry cycle.

Manually retry a failed payment

  1. In Payments › Subscriptions, find the subscription with an Unpaid or Past due payment.
  2. Open that payment's Actions menu and click Retry Payment.
  3. Check the amount in the Retry failed payment window: the oldest unpaid payment is the one charged.
  4. Pick a saved card or click + Add New and enter another card.
  5. If that card should be used for the following charges too, turn on Use this card for future payments.
  6. Click Charge Card.

Tips

  • If you change the settings mid-cycle, the remaining retries follow the new rule (e.g. going from 3 to 2 retries drops the third one).
  • Pair retries with a message asking the customer to update their card, sent by a workflow when a payment fails.
  • Payments that were never collected aren't recovered automatically: send an invoice or a payment link for the outstanding amount.

Common problems

  • The customer wasn't charged for the month → Usually the product linked to the subscription was renamed or changed under Payments › Products, which breaks the link. On the subscription, open the three dots › Update Subscription, add the updated product, remove the old one and save.
  • The manual retry is refused with a warning → After 3 failed attempts with the same card there's a 24-hour cooldown before that card can be retried. Use another card or wait.
  • I don't see the Retry Payment button → Manual retry only exists for subscriptions on the listed providers and with an unpaid payment.
  • I don't see the Subscription tab in Settings → Check your Payments permissions; the setting applies to the providers listed above.

Frequently asked questions

Which payment is charged on a manual retry?

The subscription's oldest unpaid payment.

Is the subscription cancelled automatically when the card fails?

Only if you check that option in Settings. Otherwise it stays Unpaid until payment is received.

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