When a client's recurring payment fails, an automatic payment recovery process is initiated to attempt to collect the payment. Here’s how it works and what you can do as a trainer to manage failed payments.
Automatic Payment Recovery Process
If a client’s payment method is declined during the scheduled collection of a recurring product’s next payment:
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First Attempt Fails: The invoice is marked as failing, and the client receives this failing invoice with the error message (e.g., "Credit card expired"). They also receive an in-app notification informing them that the payment attempt has failed.
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Second Attempt (3 Days Later): If the payment is still unsuccessful, another attempt is made after 3 days.
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Final Attempt (5 Days After Second Attempt): If the second attempt fails, a final attempt is made 5 days later. If this attempt also fails, the invoice and product will be marked as failed.
- Auto-Deactivation (If Enabled): If Membership Control is turned on and the client does not have any upcoming products, they will be automatically deactivated.
Please note that there is no way to force a manual collection of a failing invoice. The system will automatically retry based on the dunning scheduled above.
How Trainers Can Monitor and Manage Failed Payments
Viewing Payment Attempts
When a client’s recurring payment does not go through, Stripe automatically attempts to recover the payment three times over the course of several days.
You can view the failed invoice in Trainerize to confirm the invoice status and review any payment failure message returned by Stripe.
To review a failed payment in ABC Trainerize:
Navigate to the Payments tab in your Trainerize web account.
Locate the client’s failing invoice.
Review the invoice status and any available failure message, such as Insufficient funds, Card expired, or Card declined.
Stripe determines why the payment was declined and automatically retries the payment. Trainerize does not control the decline reason or force a manual retry of a failing invoice.
If the payment ultimately fails, you can resell the product in Trainerize once the client has updated their payment method.
For more information about common reasons a client payment may fail, review Stripe’s guide: Stripe Support: Why is my customers payment failing.
Manually Resolving a Failing Payment
If you notice a client invoice is failing, you can try to manually resolve the issue by:
Communicating with the Client:
- Reach out to the client to have them update their payment details.
Forcing a Payment by Cancelling and Reselling:
- Cancel the failed product from the client’s profile.
- Resell the product to generate a new invoice.
- Ensure the client’s payment details are updated before reattempting.
Previewing Failed Invoice In-App Notification
To view the auto-message for payment attempt failure, navigate to Settings > Auto Messages and Events. From there, scroll down to Automatic Payment Recovery:
This allows you to understand what your clients see and better assist them in resolving payment issues. Note that these auto-messages are not customizable.
