Payment retries
DEFINITION
Payment retries are the automated, scheduled re-attempts a business makes to collect a charge after a subscriber's payment first fails, working independently of dunning to recover revenue without any subscriber-facing action.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
RELATED TERMS
Payment retries are the automated re-attempts a subscription business makes to collect a charge after a payment first fails. They handle the actual charge recovery, separate from dunning, which handles the subscriber-facing communication around that same failure.
When a payment fails, payment retries and a dunning campaign activate independently of each other, each on its own schedule and neither waiting for the other. Retries work in the background to recover the charge, while dunning prompts the subscriber to update their payment method. Not every decline is the same, and payment retries are built around that: a generic gateway error, a decline for insufficient funds, and a temporary hold each behave differently, so retry timing that adjusts to the likely cause tends to recover more than retrying every failure on one fixed schedule.
Why payment retries matter for subscription businesses
A failed payment doesn't mean a subscriber wants to leave. It usually means something went wrong at the payment level, often something as ordinary as a card being temporarily over its limit or a gateway hiccup. Involuntary churn, losing a subscriber because a charge failed rather than because they chose to cancel, is one of the more preventable forms of subscriber loss, and payment retries are the primary mechanism for preventing it.
Because retries work automatically in the background, they recover revenue without requiring a discount, an incentive, or any change in the subscriber's own behavior. The subscriber already intended to stay; the job of payment retries is making sure a bank decline doesn't decide otherwise. Because retries and dunning are independent systems in Recurly, the recovery attempt and the subscriber communication can be tuned separately rather than run as a single bundled process.
How payment retries work
When a payment fails, payment retries and a dunning campaign activate independently, based on how each is configured. Retries begin attempting to recover the charge on a retry schedule. Merchants on the Starter tier follow a static retry model based on industry guidelines, while merchants on higher tiers receive an AI-driven Intelligent Retries model, or a merchant can define a custom schedule instead. Dunning emails fire on their own day-offset schedule. A subscriber might receive a dunning email on day one while a retry fires on day two, or both on the same day, depending entirely on configuration.
If the invoice is collected for any reason, whether the subscriber updates their payment method and a charge succeeds or a scheduled retry goes through, both retries and dunning stop automatically and the subscription returns to active.
Recurly's Intelligent Retries model uses machine learning to determine the best retry schedule for each declined payment, without requiring merchants to hand-configure retry timing themselves.
How to use payment retries
Retries are configured automatically when you go live with Recurly, so no setup is required to start recovering failed charges. To use Intelligent Retries for maximum recoveries, make sure your account is in an eligible tier, or define a custom retry schedule instead.
Configure your dunning campaign separately in the Recurly App. Payment retries and dunning are independent settings that both activate on a payment failure, but the length of your dunning window will determine how long we attempt to retry your card.
You can view the next scheduled retry attempt time for any past due invoice by navigating to that invoice in Recurly App. This will be in the "Collection Info" box in the lefthand nav bar.
After a subscriber updates their payment method, the new method is retried automatically with no action needed.
You can trigger a manual retry in the app or via API at any time if you prefer not to wait for the next scheduled attempt.
Monitor your payment retry recovery dashboard to track retry attempts, revenue at risk, recovered revenue, recovery rate, and which retry attempt number is capturing payments.
As a starting point, Recurly recommends a retry and dunning window of 27 days for monthly subscriptions, 45 days for bimonthly subscriptions, and 60 days for anything longer, which gives the most time to collect before the same subscription risks having two invoices outstanding at once.
Benefits and examples
Recovers revenue from failed charges without requiring any subscriber-facing discount or incentive.
Reduces involuntary churn by resolving payment failures automatically, before they escalate into a lost subscriber.
Applies retry timing that reflects the likely cause of a decline rather than retrying every failure on an identical schedule.
Works alongside other recovery tools, including dunning campaigns, Account Updater, and backup payment methods, to build layered coverage against different failure causes.
Gives visibility through the payment retry recovery dashboard, which breaks recovery down by attempt number so a business can see which retry attempt is actually converting, alongside revenue at risk and recovery rate, and adjust its settings based on its own data.
For merchants who want retries layered on top of an existing billing system rather than replacing it, Recurly Recover plugs into failed transactions from an outside billing platform and applies Recurly's retry logic without requiring a full migration.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between payment retries and dunning? Payment retries handle the technical side of recovering a failed charge by re-attempting it on a schedule. Dunning handles the subscriber-facing side, sending emails or other communications that prompt the customer to update their payment method. They run independently but are usually used together.
Do payment retries keep trying forever if a payment keeps failing? No. Retries stop when the configured retry and dunning cycle ends, and merchants define what happens next, typically expiring the subscription or leaving it active without further automatic retries.
Does every declined payment get retried the same way? Not with Intelligent Retries. The retry timing adapts based on the type of decline, since a decline for insufficient funds and a decline from a gateway issue behave differently and respond better to different retry timing.
What happens if a subscriber updates their card in the middle of a retry cycle? The new payment method is attempted immediately. If that attempt succeeds the subscription resumes normally and no further retries or dunning emails are sent. Otherwise, retries continue on schedule with the new payment method.
Can payment retries work with a billing system other than Recurly? Yes, through Recurly Recover, which is designed to sit alongside an existing billing system and apply retry logic specifically to failed transactions, without requiring a full migration.
