Sooner or later, a recurring charge will fail: cards that expire, insufficient funds, or bank declines. Acting quickly keeps you from losing the subscriber over a payment problem that has a solution.

Most likely causes and what to do

The card expired or was replaced

This is the most common cause in long-running subscriptions. Ask the customer to update their payment method; once updated, the next charge attempt uses the new card.

Insufficient funds on the charge date

Automatic retries usually resolve it: the charge is attempted again over the following days. Let the customer know so they have funds available before the next attempt.

The bank declined the charge

Some banks block recurring charges for security. Suggest that the customer authorize the charge with their bank or register a card from another issuer. The decline details appear on the payment in the Conekta Panel.

Retries ran out and the subscription was suspended

Contact the customer to settle the payment and reactivate the subscription with a valid payment method. If the customer no longer wants the service, formally cancel it to close the cycle cleanly.

How to reduce failed charges

  • Notify the customer a few days before each renewal, especially for annual charges.
  • Make it easy to update the payment method ahead of the card's expiration.
  • Review failed charges in the Conekta Panel every week so you can act within the retry window.

Next step

To understand the details of a specific decline, see Why a payment was declined.