When a subscription renewal is declined, PlatformDTC retries it on a schedule chosen for the reason it was declined, emails your customer before and after each attempt, and keeps the subscription on hold instead of cancelling it when a card simply runs out of funds. The settings live at Subscriptions → Settings. This page describes the Smart AI retry strategy, under Dunning & Smart Retries. The Fixed schedule strategy retries on the days you list, but the one-attempt-per-card limit and the hold after the last retry apply to both strategies.

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When renewals are charged

  • On the renewal date, or on the customer’s next payday when one falls within 3 days after that date. A renewal is never charged before its renewal date.
  • At your store’s billing hour, in the customer’s local time — 14:00 unless you change it — not at the time of day the customer originally checked out.
  • The cycle doesn’t drift. The next renewal date is counted from the renewal date, not from the day the charge actually ran.
Paydays follow the country in the customer’s shipping address: A payday that falls on a weekend counts as the Friday before.

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Retry schedule

Every card decline is sorted into one of three groups, using both the decline reason and the raw response code the customer’s bank sent. If either one says the card must not be retried, it isn’t.
  • If the card network says how long to wait, we wait at least that long, even past the 72 hours for a refer-to-the-bank retry.
  • Each retry is judged on its own decline. If a retry comes back with a permanent decline, no further retries are made.
  • At most one automatic attempt per card in any 24 hours, counted across every subscription charged to that card. This applies to both retry strategies.
  • Recovery discount. If Recovery discount (%) is on, it now unlocks after 3 failed attempts by default, so it applies to the final retry.

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If the payment still doesn’t go through

After the last retry fails, the subscription is not cancelled. It stays Past due and nothing more is charged automatically. Your customer receives up to 4 requests to update their payment method, at least 3 days apart. As soon as they update or re-enter their card, the payment is retried immediately. They can still cancel at any time. This applies to both retry strategies. After a permanent decline, or a refer-to-the-bank decline whose one retry is declined again, nothing is retried automatically. The subscription goes Past due and your customer receives the same update-payment-method requests. If Cancel when a declined card is never replaced is on, a subscription held for a permanent decline is cancelled once all 4 requests go unanswered. A refer-to-the-bank hold is never cancelled automatically — it stays Past due until the customer pays, updates their card or cancels.

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Emails your customers receive

  • Before each renewal — 3 days before by default. The reminder shows the amount and the date, asks the customer to make sure their card has enough available, and links to update the payment method, skip, pause and manage the subscription. It also links to cancel, unless your store runs a cancellation flow.
  • After a failed attempt that will be retried — when we’ll try again. For insufficient funds, it asks the customer to make sure funds are available before that date or to switch cards.
  • Before the final retry — a last-retry notice saying the subscription will be put on hold, not cancelled, if that attempt fails. For a refer-to-the-bank decline, the one retry is the final retry.
  • After a permanent decline — a notice that the payment didn’t go through, with a link to update the payment method.
  • After retries run out — the update-payment-method requests described above.
Failure and card-update emails are sent only when Dunning emails is on, under Billing engine emails. If it is off, your customers receive none of them — no retry notices, no last-retry notice and no requests to update their card.

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Settings

All in Subscriptions → Settings:
  • Pre-renewal reminder → Reminder emails — turns the pre-renewal reminder on or off.
  • Pre-renewal reminder → Lead time (days) — how many days before the renewal the reminder is sent: 0 to 14, 3 by default. 0 turns the reminder off.
  • Dunning & Smart Retries → Retry strategy — Smart AI retry, described on this page, or Fixed schedule.
  • Dunning & Smart Retries → Max attempts — the most attempts a declined renewal gets, including the first.
  • Dunning & Smart Retries → Billing & retry hour (customer’s local time) — the hour renewals and retries are charged, 14 by default.
  • Dunning & Smart Retries → Recovery discount (%) and Offer discount after N failures — an optional one-cycle discount on a renewal that keeps failing, unlocked after 3 failures by default.
  • Dunning & Smart Retries → Cancel when a declined card is never replaced — cancels a subscription after a permanent decline once the update-payment-method requests go unanswered.
  • Billing engine emails → Dunning emails — failure, retry and card-update emails.