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How to Automatically Retry Failed Subscription Payments

What this video covers

This short video walks through the Strategy tab of the Failed Payment Recovery page: turning on payment retries, the recommended 8 attempts, 1 day apart, what happens if every attempt fails, the recovery schedule, recovery discounts, customer emails, instant retries and backup payment recovery. It ends with what your customer sees: the payment failed email and the Payment Detail section of their customer portal.

In short

  • Recovery performance shows your recovery rate, recovered revenue and how much is still being recovered, over the last 90 days.

  • Enable payment retries turns retries on or off. Then choose Fixed schedule (one steady rhythm) or Phased campaign (several stages). Only the method you select runs.

  • For Fixed schedule, choose Total payment attempts, Days between attempts and what happens If every attempt fails. The Recovery schedule shows the day of each attempt.

  • Recovery discounts can add a discount after a failed payment, so the customer has a reason to update their card before the next retry.

  • Customer & automation can email the customer after each failed retry, retry as soon as the customer updates their payment method, and try another saved payment method when a charge fails. Backup payment recovery only works for customers who opt in from the Payment Detail section of their customer portal.

Good to know

  • Total payment attempts includes the original charge. 8 attempts means the original charge on the billing date plus 7 retries, not 8 retries. So the recommended 8 attempts, 1 day apart, means 7 retries over 7 days.

  • Pause sets the subscription to Paused. It does not stay active. No further orders are charged until the subscription is resumed, and the customer gets your subscription paused email.

  • Turning off Enable payment retries doesn't switch everything off. Failed payments aren't retried, but your If every attempt fails choice still applies to the failed charge.

  • Switching methods: your Fixed schedule settings stay saved when you switch to Phased campaign. If you switch from Phased campaign to Fixed schedule and save, your phases are removed.

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