What happens when a customer's subscription payment fails
This article explains what happens when a subscription payment fails, including how retries work for SystemeScale plans, customer course purchases, payment plans, and other supported payment gateways.
Subscription to a SystemeScale plan
When you attempt to subscribe to a SystemeScale plan, meaning your personal subscription, it is possible that the payment may fail.
In such cases, SystemeScale or the selected payment gateway will attempt up to three additional retries after the initial failure, depending on the payment method used.
Stripe and PayPal retry behavior
Stripe (Credit/Debit Card): retries follow a custom schedule:
- 1st retry: 3 days after the initial failure.
- 2nd retry: 5 days after the previous attempt.
- 3rd retry: 7 days after the previous attempt.
PayPal: the retry process is entirely managed by PayPal, which automatically attempts to collect the payment multiple times.
However, the entire PayPal retry process is limited to a maximum of five days. This means the retries can be close together, sometimes only a few hours apart.
The retry frequency and intervals depend on PayPalβs internal rules, such as seller reputation, product type, and sales frequency, and cannot be modified by SystemeScale.
Access to your subscription
Once your payment details have been submitted, you will receive immediate access to your SystemeScale account, even if the payment is still pending.
If, after all retries, the payment is still unsuccessful, your account will be canceled.
Failed payment from a customer: course purchase
When a customer purchases one of your products or courses, access is granted immediately.
If the payment fails, the same retry logic applies:
- Up to three additional retries will be attempted.
- Credit card: retry attempts for card payments are performed according to the retry settings configured in your own Stripe account. The exact timing may vary depending on whether you use Smart Retries or a custom retry schedule in your Stripe dashboard.
- PayPal: retries are managed within a maximum of five days.
If the payment is not successfully completed, access to the course will be suspended.
Control access after the first payment
This access behavior can be modified by the seller on the payment page. If you prefer to restrict access until the first payment is successfully received, select the Grant access only after receiving the first payment option.
Failed payment from a customer on a payment plan
If a customer is on a payment plan and a payment fails, the system will attempt up to four total charges: the initial attempt plus three retries.
Retry intervals depend on the payment method:
- Credit card: intervals depend on the settings in the seller's Stripe account, using either Smart Retries or a custom schedule.
- PayPal: retries happen under five days in total.
If no payment is completed, the customerβs subscription will be canceled.
Configuring Stripe retry policies
If you use Smart Retries, Stripe chooses the best timing automatically.
If you want a specific schedule, such as 3-5-7 days, you must configure a custom retry policy inside your Stripe dashboard under Settings > Subscriptions and emails.
How customer subscriptions work with other payment gateways
Here is what happens when a payment fails using other gateways currently supported by SystemeScale:
- Mollie: no automatic retries are performed. The user must manually retry the payment.
- Mercado Pago β Cards: 3 retries are attempted. The interval is fixed and cannot be modified. For details, contact Mercado Pago support.
- Mercado Pago β Boleto / Pix: 3 retries are made, spaced 7 days apart. The interval is not customizable.
- Razorpay: 3 retries are performed, each 1 day apart, in addition to the initial attempt. The seller can manually trigger a retry from their Razorpay dashboard without waiting 24 hours. This does not increase the total number of allowed attempts.
- Flutterwave: 3 automatic retries are made, spaced 30 minutes apart, in addition to the first attempt. The interval cannot be changed.
- GoCardless: 3 retries will be made. The delay between retries depends on the customerβs bank. You can configure the number of attempts and intervals per currency in your GoCardless account settings, and SystemeScale will apply those rules.
- Xendit: 3 retries are made, spaced 7 days apart, in addition to the first attempt. The interval is not editable.
- Secure and Pay: no automatic retries are scheduled. A notification is sent to the customer after a failed payment. If no payment is received within 30 days, the subscription is automatically canceled.
- Paystack: no automatic retries are currently performed in case of payment failure.
Related subscription and gateway guides
Use the related guides below to control subscription-resource access, connect payment gateways, or review the behavior of specific payment integrations.