Recurring Billing FAQ

Recurring Billing is a value-added service that allows you to accept recurring payments, either for subscriptions or payment plans. Create recurring billing plans within your Merchant Services account to set the price, the billing date, and the frequency. When your customer signs up for a subscription or a payment plan, create a token to capture the customer’s information and their payment details; then assign the customer to the appropriate Recurring Billing plan(s) by creating a subscription.

IMPORTANT!
When you create a token and add payment information, a customer token and a billing token are automatically created, incurring two separate fees. Later, if you add additional payment information for this customer, you will incur an additional billing token fee.

With Recurring Billing, recurring payments from the customer automatically process without the merchant storing any sensitive customer or payment information. Using secure tokens protects sensitive cardholder information and can prevent the theft of payment card information from your system.

NOTE:
Recurring Billing can be used only to collect scheduled payments from customers, not to disburse payments.

To add/enable the Recurring Billing service, contact your Merchant Consultant or call 833.344.2324.

To cancel/disable the Recurring Billing service, contact us at 833.344.2324. Recurring billing is self-serve and agents do not have the ability to edit, cancel or set up subscriptions.

A delinquent status means that a payment has been missed. We tried to bill your customer on the billing date for their Recurring Billing plan, and the payment was declined. 

Recurring Billing will retry a failed transaction a number of times. These retries (billing attempts) are spaced out evenly, depending on the billing frequency of the Recurring Billing plan. Timing for these billing attempts is summarized below:

• Yearly billing frequency: Recurring Billing retries every 15 days x 3 times 
  Example: If your Recurring Billing plan bill every year on December 1, and a card does not process, the service will retry the card on December 16, January 3, and February 18. After February 18, if the transaction is not successful, the Recurring Billing subscription will become suspended.
• Monthly billing frequency: Recurring Billing retries every 2 days x 5 times 
• Weekly billing frequency: Recurring Billing retries every 1 days x 3 times
• Daily: Recurring Billing does not retry

If all retries fail, the status of the subscription will change to Suspended.

If possible, you should contact your customer and request updated payment information. If you receive updated payment information, update the customer’s token. You will need all 16 digits of the customer’s card information, and the expiration date. 

If you are unable to contact your customer, Recurring Billing will continue to try to bill them. If these billing attempts are not successful, the subscription will move to a suspended status.

A suspended status means that we tried to bill your client, and the attempts were not successful. (See the question My customer is in “delinquent” status in Recurring Billing. Is the Recurring Billing service still trying to bill my customer? ) If your customer is in a suspended status, you should contact the customer and determine if their payment information has changed. If the customer provides you with updated billing information, update their token and reactivate the subscription.

If you wait three to five business days after your Account Updater harvest date, you will see the most updated response codes for your tokens. At this point, if you have any ACL or CCH statuses, you should contact these customers and request payment information. If you receive updated payment information, update the customer’s token.

1. Your customer will receive a notification approximately 2-3 days prior to their payment being processed. (In the event of a daily recurring subscription, this notification does not apply.)
2. Your customer will receive a payment confirmation notification the day that their payment is processed.
3. Your customer will receive a failed notification in the event that their payment does not get successfully processed.

There are a range of reasons why your customer might receive a failed notification. The most common reasons are explained below.

• Customer’s card has a new expiration date or account number: If the customer provides you updated card information, update their token. Check to see if their subscription is in suspended status, and reactivate if needed.
• Customer closed their credit/debit card account: If the customer provides you new payment info, update their token. Check to see if their subscription is in suspended status and reactivate if needed.
• Customer card is at its limit: If your customer’s card is at its limit. 
  Example: At credit limit or zero debit balance, then you should wait until their Recurring Billing status goes to suspended. If they do not provide additional or updated card information, you can delete their subscription.

No, you will need to use an alternative method to bill for goods/services provided while Recurring Billing subscription is suspended.

There is nothing you need to do in Recurring Billing. Account Updater will automatically update your secure tokens and your Recurring Billing events should happen as planned with no impact to you.