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Dunning subscriptions

When a recurring payment for a subscription fails the customer will enter the Dunning process.

Failed payments

Recurring payments for subscriptions can fail for various reasons. The most common ones are:

  • Insuficient funds
  • Invalid or blocked card
  • The card issuer refuses the transaction
  • Fraud

When this occurs, the dunning process starts. It involves several reminder emails before eventually the subscriber is downgraded from their current subscription.

Supported Offers & Payment gateways

  • Subscriptions through web for Monthly or Yearly Subscriptions.
  • Web payments that use Adyen or Stripe payment gateways.

Scenario 1: 7 days trial, monthly subscription and successful payment

For reference, this is how the billing process looks like when the payment is successful.

1. The subscriber starts their trial period.
2. After 7 days the user account is marked to be billed, which happens in the following night.
3. The withdrawal is successful and the user can keep using the service.
4. Next month at the corresponding day from (2), the cycle starts over from (2) and repeat.
Screen Shot 2022-07-15 at 15.54.18.png

Scenario 2: 7 days trial, monthly subscription, failed payment

1. The subscriber starts their trial period.
2. After 7 days the user account is marked to be billed, which happens in the following night.
3. The payment fails and the subscriber receives an email, instructing them to check their payment method.
4. 2 or 3 days later the system tries to bill the user account again, if it fails they will get the same reminder email a second time.
5. 2 or 3 days later we do our last billing attempt, if it again fails, the user account is downgraded and the system sends an email telling the user that the account was downgraded.
6. After this step, there are no more billing attempts or reminders, the subscriber is now considered a free user with no active offer.
Screen Shot 2022-07-15 at 15.54.29.png

Scenario 3: 7 days trial, monthly subscription, failed and successful payment

1. The subscriber starts their trial period.
2. After 7 days the user account is marked to be billed, which happens in the following night.
3. The payment fails and the subscriber receives an email, instructing them to check their payment method.
4. The user updates the payment method
5. 2 or 3 days later the system tries to bill the user account again and succeeds.
6. The dunning process ends at this point. The customer paid successfully for the subscription and is treated as in scenario 1.

Scenario 4: 7 days trial, monthly subscription, failed payment, customer cancels the subscription

1. The subscriber starts their trial period.
2. After 7 days the user account is marked to be billed, which happens in the following night.
3. The payment fails and the subscriber receives an email, instructing them to check their payment method.
4. The user cancels the subscription
5. 3 or2 days later the system downgrades the subscription
6. After this step, there are no more billing attempts or reminders, the subscriber is now considered a free user with no active offer.
Screen Shot 2022-07-15 at 15.54.41.png

How to end the dunning process

There are only a two possibilities to stop the dunning process:

  1. The customer updates the payment method and the system can charge successfully for the subscription.
  2. The customer is downgraded either
    1. by cancelling themselves
    2. or the support team cancels the subscription
    3. or the system downgrades the account after the third unsuccessful billing attempt

Dunning reminders

We recommend that you send the reminder emails to your customers to avoid unwanted churn. You can find the instructions on how to set up the emails here.

And here are some example emails:

You must have Author or Collection Owner permission to create Guru Cards. Contact your team's Guru admins to use this template.