How to Retry a Failed Payment?

A typical situation in subscriptions is failed recurring payments. The reasons why a payment fails can vary from one customer to another. Typical reasons include:

• Expired card details
• Insufficient funds
• Bank fraud prevention refuses the charge

The reason for the failed payment can be seen for most PSP's in your operations backend in the Recurring Payment List under Failed Reason. The reason for the failed payment as displayed in the Failed Reason Column is the same as the reason displayed in your PSP. In other words, if you log into your PSP and see a failed transaction, the reason displayed in the PSP will be the same as the reason displayed in the circuly operations backend.

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Important note: When the Payment Settled column displays a "No", this does not mean that the payment has failed or not gone through rather it just means that the payment has not been settled yet. The reason for a "No" in the Payment Settled column is either that the date of collecting the recurring payment hasn't arrived yet or if it's an upcoming payment. Recurring payment with a "No" in the Payment Settled column doesn't require any action from your side.

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What happens when a payment fails?

When a payment fails because of one of the reasons mentioned above, circuly retires the payment if the associated settings are enabled.

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Settings for retrying failed payments

In the circuly operations backend you can define how many times a payment should be retried, what should be the time interval between each retry, should the customer be informed on each attempt or only on the final attempt and so on.

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We’ll go through each setting associated with failed payment in detail, so you can decide on a process that fits your subscription operations.

To access the payment retries settings:

• Login to your circuly operations backend
• Go to Settings > Recurring Payments > PAYMENT RETRIES AND INTERVAL

What do the different settings mean?

• Cancel subscription on failure - when you enable this setting the subscription will be automatically cancelled and set to pending return after 2 failed payment cycles
  
  Payment cycle: 1 payment cycle has “x” number of payment retrial attempts. You can define the default value for “x” in your Recurring Payments settings. Go to Settings  > Recurring Payments > PAYMENT TRIES & INTERVALS > Insert a numeric value in the “Maximum number of payment retries” input field.

• Period between retrial attempts - this setting defines the minimum number of days/weeks between each retrial attempt.
  
  
• Inform customer - when you enable this setting the customer will get a Payment failed email only on the final payment attempt.
  
  
• Inform customer on each attempt - when you enable this setting the customer will get a Payment failed email after every payment retrial attempt.
  
  
• Maximum number of payment retires - this setting defines the maximum number of payment retrial attempts that can be automatically made before a manual input is required.
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• Send terminal email - when you enable this setting the customer will get the Termination of contract email after 2 failed payment cycles. Make sure to activate the Return Unpaid product email  in the email templates. In order for an email to be sent from the Email Template, it needs to be created first.

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What happens if the payment still fails even after the last try?

If the payment fails after the lasttrial attempt, your connected customer support will be automatically notified about the failed payments via email.

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Can you retry a failed payment manually?

Yes, you can try to collect the failed payment even after three failed trial attempts. to do so, follow the following steps:

• Go to Subscriptions and search the subscription for which the payment has failed (either use the search bar by entering the subscription id or name of the customer or simply scroll through the list).
• Click on the subscription to see the subscription details.
• Scroll down to RECURRING PAYMENTS.
• Search for the recurring payment with the status displayed as "failed" in the Payment Settled column.
• Click on the three dots in the same row and select Charge Recurring Payment.
• In the new Charge Recurring Payment window, accept the terms that say, "I understand the consequences".
• By accepting the terms the customer will automatically be charged with the stated amount and will be automatically notified by mail.
• Conclude the window by pressing on the button that says CHARGE xx.xx €.
• The status of the recurring payment as displayed in the Payment settled column will change to "yes".
• DONE ✅

When should you retry a failed payment manually?

You should retry a failed payent manually when your customer confirms with you that the payment details have been edited or changed.