Payment Retries

Recurring payments for a Subscription are auto-debited based on the scheduled day that you defined. However, these payments could fail.

Reasons for Payment Failures

The card has expired.
The bank has blocked the card.
The customer's account has insufficient balance.

What Happens in Case of a Payment Failure

The Subscription will move to the pending state.
You are notified about it via our webhooks. We automatically retry the payment on the following day.
- We automatically charge the last invoice if the customer changes the card when the Subscription is in the pending state.
- If this charge is successful, the Subscription moves to the active state.
If the payment fails after all retries, the Subscription will move to the halted state.
- If the customer successfully changes the card details when a Subscription is in the halted state, it moves to the active state. Invoices for such Subscriptions are still created. However, we will not charge these invoices. You will have to charge them manually.

Notifications

If you have enabled the subscription.pending and subscription.halted webhook, you receive notifications every time a Subscription moves to one of the above-mentioned states. You can then decide to hold off the delivery of the service as per your business model.

We also send an email to the customer notifying them about the payment failure. This email contains a link that the customer can use to change the card details associated with the Subscription.

Retry Model for Cards

In failure scenarios, we automatically retry the payment the next day without your interference.

In a T+3 days cycle, we will retry the payment thrice. That is, once every day for 3 days, excluding the date of the charge. If the payment fails on all retires, the Subscription moves to the halted state.

Below is the retry model:

Let T=0 be the charge day.
On T=0, we attempt to charge the card.
If the charge fails, the Subscription moves to the pending state, and we automatically reattempt the charge on T+1 day.
If the charge fails again, we automatically reattempt the charge two more times on T+2 and T+3 days, respectively.
If the charge still fails, the Subscription moves to the halted state.

Handle Failed Charge (Cards)

There are two ways to handle a failed charge:

Manual Charge on the Same Card

When an auto-charge fails, you can manually attempt to charge the invoice as long as the invoice is in the issued state.

Watch Out!

Manual charging of a domestic card is not supported.

For example, the customer's account might have an insufficient balance when you attempt to auto-charge. When they receive the payment failure email, they add money to their account and inform you about this. You can then try to charge manually on the invoice.

You can

attempt a manual charge on the invoice using the Dashboard

We also send an email to the customer notifying them about the payment failure. This email contains a link that the customer can use to change the card details associated with the Subscription.

Change the Card Linked to the Subscription

When an auto-charge fails, we send the customer an email about the payment failure. This email has a link that the customer can use to change the card linked to the Subscription.

You can ask the customer to change the card linked to the Subscription.

Change the Card via your Checkout

You can ask the customer to change the card details associated with the Subscription via your checkout using our APIs. Use the subscription_card_change parameter to control this feature:

1 = Allow the customer to change the card details from your checkout
0 = Do not allow the customer to change the card details from your checkout

<button id = "rzp-button1">Pay</button>
<script src = "https://checkout.razorpay.com/v1/checkout.js"></script>
<script>
  var options = {
    "key": "key_id",
    "subscription_id": "sub_00000000000001",
    "name": "Acme Corp.",
    "description": "Monthly Test Plan",
    "image": "/your_logo.jpg",
    "subscription_card_change": 1,
    "handler": function(response) {
      alert(response.razorpay_payment_id),
      alert(response.razorpay_subscription_id),
      alert(response.razorpay_signature);
    },
    "prefill": {
      "name": "Gaurav Kumar",
      "email": "gaurav.kumar@example.com",
      "contact": "+919876543210"
    },
    "notes": {
      "note_key_1": "Tea. Earl Grey. Hot",
      "note_key_2": "Make it so."
    },
    "theme": {
      "color": "#F37254"
    }
  };
var rzp1 = new Razorpay(options);
document.getElementById('rzp-button1').onclick = function(e) {
  rzp1.open();
  e.preventDefault();
}
</script>

Handler Function vs Callback URL

Handler Function
When you use the handler function, the response object of the successful payment (razorpay_payment_id, razorpay_order_id and razorpay_signature) is submitted to the checkout form. You need to collect these and send them to your server.
Callback URL
When you use a Callback URL, the response object of the successful payment (razorpay_payment_id, razorpay_order_id and razorpay_signature) is submitted to the callback URL.

Update the Payment Method via our Hosted Page

You can use our ready-made hosted page solution to handle payment failures when you attempt an auto-charge. Here is how the hosted page handles payment failure:

The customer is notified via email about the payment failure.
The payment failure email contains a link that allows the customer to take further action on the failed payment.
Customers can either retry the payment on the same card, update the card details, or change the payment method to wallet (Touch'n Go). The hosted page handles these actions seamlessly.

The following table lists the supported payment method change.

Additionally, you can use the dashboard status filter to search for halted and pending Subscriptions. You can send the Subscription link to the respective customers to clear dues and make those Subscriptions active.

Handy Tips

To use our Hosted Page solution, pass 1 against the customer_notify parameter (customer_notify=1) when creating the Subscription via APIs. Know more about the

Subscription APIs