Subscription payment failures

When a subscription renewal fails, Arketa follows a retry process before marking the subscription as past due. Here's what happens and what you need to do.

What happens when a subscription fails

Initial failure — Stripe declines the charge on the renewal date
Automatic retries — Arketa retries the payment up to 8 times within 30 days. The system uses a smart algorithm to determine the optimal time of day to attempt each charge, maximizing the chance of success.
Client notification — the client receives an email asking them to update their payment method
Past due status — if all retries fail, the subscription moves to "Past due"
Access restriction — depending on your settings, past-due clients may be blocked from booking

Arketa never automatically cancels a subscription. Even after all retry attempts are exhausted, the subscription remains in "Past due" status — it is not canceled. Only a client or a staff member can cancel a subscription. This means you always have the opportunity to recover the payment and retain the client.

Resolve a subscription failure

Go to Customers → Clients → open the client's profile
Find their subscription (it will show "Past due" status)
Update their payment method (or have them update it themselves)
Once updated, retry the failed payment from the subscription detail

After a successful retry, the subscription returns to active status and any blocked access is restored.

Resolving unpaid reservations

If a client has unpaid reservations linked to a past-due subscription, you can enable Unpaid Reservation Resolver in Settings → General Business Settings. This setting can:

Automatically charge the payment method on file to resolve unpaid reservations
Or hold the reservation as unpaid until the subscription is resolved

Notifying clients

Arketa sends automated failed payment notifications to clients. You can customize these emails in Settings → Transactional Emails. You can also reach out manually via the Inbox or by phone.

Preventing future failures

Encourage clients to keep their card information updated. Send a reminder automation 2 weeks before a card's expected expiry (if you collect card expiry info), or include a link to update payment methods in your routine client communications.