Declined recurring payments appear in To-Dos ➜ Open Invoices while they are being retried, then move to To-Dos ➜ Failed Payments once the retry limit is reached. At checkout, the customer sees an error message and the purchase isn't completed.

To find out why a payment was declined, open it in To-Dos ➜ Open Invoices. This shows the reason the last attempt failed and when the next retry is due. You can also click the payment in your Stripe Dashboard under Payments to see its failure reason.

The customer's account didn't have enough money to cover the payment.

The card saved on the membership has expired, or its details are no longer correct.

The customer's bank blocked the payment, for example as a fraud or security precaution.

Once the issue is resolved, wait for the next automatic retry, or click Actions ➜ Retry in To-Dos ➜ Failed Payments.

This is expected behaviour. Stripe retries the payment every 24 hours until it reaches the number set under Settings ➜ Registrations ➜ Customers ➜ Number of failed payment attempts before a membership is unusable.

Once the limit is reached, the payment moves to To-Dos ➜ Failed Payments and the membership shows a red Max Retries label. The customer can no longer use that membership for new bookings, although existing bookings stay in place.

To take action on a retrying payment:

This isn't a failure yet, as the payment is waiting for the customer to confirm it. For recurring payments, the customer is emailed and asked to confirm the payment. At checkout, their bank may show a verification screen or ask them to approve the payment in their banking app.

While the customer completes this step, their booking may show as Checkout Pending.

Ask the customer to follow the link in the email or complete their bank's verification prompt. If verification keeps failing, they should contact their bank or try a different card.

Charges below the minimum fail, although zero-value recurring charges still process. The minimum amounts are:

To resolve this, adjust the price or discount so the total is either zero or meets the minimum for your currency.

This can happen when adding a payment method was deferred when the membership was set up, or when the payment method was later removed. Card details are only saved when a purchase is successful.

The customer is emailed once a week before their first billing date, then daily once billing is due, and sees an ADD PAYMENT DETAILS banner in their account. Each day without a payment method counts as a failed attempt towards your limit.

To resolve this, ask the customer to add their details using the banner, or add a payment method to the membership yourself. You can edit the reminder email by going to Communication ➜ Notifications ➜ Customer Membership: Missing Payment Method.

This error can appear when the customer or their card was removed in your Stripe Dashboard, or when the saved card couldn't be reused for the next payment.

To resolve this error:

This is a rare sync issue that our support team can fix. Automatic reconciliation now makes it less likely to happen.

To resolve this issue:

To resolve a duplicate charge, go to the customer's profile, open the Payments tab and click Refund next to the duplicate payment. Stripe doesn't return its processing fee when a payment is refunded.

If both charges appear in Stripe but only one shows on the customer's profile, contact our support team with both charge IDs.

Customers may see messages such as Error Processing Payment: Invalid Date, a "something went wrong" message, or an error screen with a reference code. The Invalid Date error usually follows a change to a membership's tax settings or configuration.

To resolve a checkout error:

Each payment processor can be turned on or off for different purchase types, such as recurring and non-recurring memberships, classes, appointments, courses, store items and gift cards.

To check this, go to Settings ➜ Collect Payments, click Edit next to Stripe and make sure it's enabled for the purchase type.

This isn't a failed payment. Your first Stripe payout takes around 5 to 7 business days, and payouts can be paused while Stripe identity verification is outstanding. Stripe fees are deducted before each payout.

To check a delayed payout:

A single failed payment doesn't affect future scheduled payments, although the failed payment needs to be retried manually.

To resolve a declined Direct Debit:

If you need to contact GoCardless, have the Payment ID ready. It starts with PM.

The customer or their bank may have cancelled the Direct Debit, or the bank account may have been closed.

To resolve this issue:

This is expected behaviour. You'll find these payments under Billing/Revenue ➜ Pending, and first payments take the longest to clear.

A Pending payment can only be cancelled in your GoCardless dashboard. Once it's cancelled there, it shows as a failed payment that you can void.

GoCardless begins processing payments 7 days before the billing day, so price changes or cancellations made inside that window take effect from the next billing cycle.

To avoid this, make changes at least 7 to 8 days before the billing date. If it's too late, let the payment go through and refund the difference.

Once the customer has added their GoCardless details, go to To-Dos ➜ Pending Offline Payments, open the invoice and select Convert to bill. The customer is then emailed so they can pay online.

While your account is under review, customers see a failure message when they try to complete a purchase.

Complete any outstanding verification steps in your GoCardless account. In the meantime, you can offer card payments through Stripe.

The Refund button only appears once the original payment shows as Completed. Payments that are still Pending can't be refunded.

To refund the customer, you can:

This isn't a failed payment. Payments typically need 2 working days after the charge date before they're ready to be paid out, and your payout schedule may be daily, weekly or monthly.

Check your payout schedule and any verification notices in your GoCardless dashboard. If a payout is still missing, contact GoCardless.

For Stripe, open the retrying payment in To-Dos ➜ Open Invoices, which shows the failure reason and the next retry date. You can also click the payment in your Stripe Dashboard.

For GoCardless, check the payment in your GoCardless dashboard.

Select Void next to the payment in To-Dos ➜ Open Invoices.

This stops the automatic retries and skips the payment permanently.

Customers receive automatic emails about payment retries and failed payments.

Owners, Admins and Instructors with the Revenue permission can also receive an email the first time a customer's payment fails. This email lists any upcoming registrations the customer has. It isn't sent again for later retry failures, so you won't receive an email for every retry.
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You can turn this email on or off under My Account ➜ Notifications.

If the first payment on a recurring membership fails, the customer is automatically removed from any classes they registered for with it.

This only applies to the first payment. Later failed payments follow the normal retry process.

No. Single purchases, such as drop-ins, packs and store items, aren't retried.

If the payment fails, the purchase isn't completed and the customer needs to check out again.

Yes. GoCardless payments aren't retried automatically, so the limit counts each manual retry instead.

No. Stripe doesn't return its processing fee when a payment is refunded.

If you think a duplicate charge was caused by a system error, contact our support team.

Account credit refunds stay on the customer's profile as credit.

They aren't returned to the customer's card or bank account.

This is a rare sync issue.

Contact our support team with the Stripe charge ID (starting ch_) or payment intent ID (starting pi_) so they can link the payment to the customer's purchase.