What Happens When Membership Payments Fail
When a customer’s membership payment fails or becomes overdue, it can affect their access to classes and services. This guide explains the steps taken when a membership is unpaid and how to resolve the issue.
Customer Notifications
Note: If you are handling membership payments outside of Stripe, click here!
When a membership payment fails in Stripe, here is the response from Punchpass:
Instant email alert: The customer receives an email that the payment has failed. This email includes a link for the customer to update their payment method.
Business notification: Punchpass will send an email to the business noting that the payment failed.
Immediate Impact of an Unpaid Membership
The current membership pass is suspended and marked as payment failed, so the membership pass can no longer be used to book or attend classes.
Restoring Access
To restore access to their membership:
Update Payment Information: The customer needs to log into their Punchpass account and update their payment details.
Automatic Reattempt: Once the payment information is updated, Punchpass will automatically retry the payment. If successful, the membership status will be updated to "Active," and the customer’s access will be restored.
Payment Recovery Options
If a payment is not updated:
Ongoing Restriction: The customer will continue to be denied access to classes until the payment is successfully processed.
Manual Resolution: In some cases, you may need to manually intervene by contacting the customer and assisting with payment resolution. Here's how to collect payment for unpaid membership passes.
Review Membership Payments with the Memberships Report
Punchpass provides a Memberships Report (link) that you can use to keep track of your customers' current recurring memberships.
Regardless of how you collect payment for your memberships, it's very important to review this report regularly to be sure payments are coming in for your customers' memberships!
Identifying Unpaid Membership Passes
The Memberships Report includes tabs for all Active, Future, Canceled, Finished, and Paused Memberships.
The report will highlight any memberships with unpaid passes. Click on the membership name to open the Membership Details page and address the unpaid passes.
Collecting Payment for Unpaid Membership Passes
Navigate to the membership using the Memberships Report (Reports > Memberships) or click on the membership from the customer's account.
To address the unpaid passes, scroll down the membership details page and you'll see the list of passes. Click on the unpaid pass.
From the Pass Details page, you can:
Retry the payment: When pressed, Stripe will attempt to collect payment with the existing payment method.
Email the customer the invoice: This opens an email for you to customize and send.
Mark the pass paid by another source.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens when a customer updates their card?
If a customer updates their credit card information, Punchpass will attempt to pay their last invoice if it's unpaid and will alert the company admin of the result.
This saves the client from having to remember to check later.
Note: Punchpass will only try the LAST invoice if it is unpaid... Punchpass won't retry payment for previous invoices.
What about OLD unpaid passes on the membership?
If the customer's credit card information has been updated, OLD unpaid passes can be paid via Stripe.
Are you seeing the message that payment for a pass has failed? Press the "Retry Paying Invoice" button to attempt payment.
If you invoice a customer by email for a pass that has failed in Stripe, and they pay, you'll need to press the "Retry Paying Invoice" option to update the pass payment status in Punchpass. Stripe will not allow you to invoice someone twice.
This is especially useful in a situation where a customer wants to convert to paying via credit card, but after the membership has started. Now the membership can be converted to pay via CC, and then the previous unpaid pass can be invoiced too.
What happens if the payment fails for the first pass of a membership that was scheduled to start in the future?
Punchpass will send you an email notification that the membership payment was unsuccessful with the customer's name and membership information. The membership pass will be marked as "Payment Failed" and the membership suspended.