Appearance
When a payment fails
A successful recurring payment is invisible — nothing seems to happen. A failed one is more visible, by design. Klixey wants both you and the customer to know in time to fix it.
What happens (in order)
- A renewal payment is attempted — the card on file is charged for the next period.
- The bank refuses it. Usually because the card expired, the balance is short, the bank declined for risk reasons, or the card was cancelled.
- The subscription enters "past due". Access doesn't stop yet. Klixey emails the customer a Payment failed message asking them to update their card.
- Klixey retries automatically. A few attempts over the following days.
- If every retry fails, the subscription is suspended. Access is cut and a Suspended email is sent to the customer.
- The customer updates their card. As soon as a charge succeeds, everything reverses — access is restored and a Reactivated email is sent.
What your customer experiences
While the subscription is past due (before suspension), your customer keeps full access to everything they bought — nothing is locked yet. They see a red banner in their portal prompting them to update their payment method, and they get the Payment failed email.
Once the subscription is suspended, the courses, communities, and memberships tied to it show as inaccessible, each protected page shows an Access expired message, and they get the Suspended email. Their billing tab still works, so they can update the card and reactivate at any time.
The fastest way for them to recover
Point a customer to the Payment failed email and have them click Update card. The next retry catches up automatically and access keeps flowing.
What the creator sees
- The customer's record shows the subscription as Past due, then Suspended.
- Course enrollments tied to a suspended subscription show as suspended too. You don't have to suspend them by hand.
- Income reports record the failed attempt without counting it as revenue.
Suspension applies to the whole bundle
Klixey treats a paying customer's access as one bundle. If their subscription is suspended, every course, community, and membership it grants is suspended at the same instant. A successful retry restores everything just as cleanly.
How retries work
After the initial failure, Klixey retries the charge a few times over the following days. You don't have to do anything to start a retry — it's automatic.
If a retry succeeds before suspension, the customer never loses access and no further emails go out.
If every retry fails, the subscription is suspended. The customer can still come back at any time, update their card from the Billing tab of their portal, and the next charge attempt restores access.
How a customer updates their card
A customer updates their card from inside their portal under Account → Billing → Update payment method. The update happens in-app — there's no redirect to a separate site. As soon as the next charge succeeds, the Reactivated email is sent and access comes back.
If the bank asked the customer to verify
Some payments fail because a bank wanted an extra confirmation step that didn't get completed in time. See Bank verification — the customer may need to retry with the same card and approve the bank prompt.
Related
- Bank verification
- Glossary — "Past-due", "Suspension"
- Troubleshooting