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When a customer’s card is declined on a recurring charge, Stripe retries it for a while. What happens after the last retry fails is decided by a setting in your own Stripe account. Stripe’s default is Cancel the subscription, which quietly stops all future invoices for that customer. This guide shows how to change it so invoices keep coming, and what Car Storage Software does when a charge fails.

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What you will accomplish

  • Your Stripe account leaves a plan past due after failed retries instead of canceling it, so the customer keeps getting invoiced every billing period.
  • You know where declined charges show up and what to do about them.

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Before you start

  • You need to be able to sign in to your facility’s Stripe account (the one connected under Settings → Billing) with a role that can change Billing settings (Administrator).
  • Car Storage Software can’t change this setting for you. It belongs to your Stripe account.

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Steps

1

Open Stripe's retry settings

In your Stripe Dashboard, go to Billing → Revenue recovery → Retries (dashboard.stripe.com/revenue_recovery/retries). Make sure you’re in the live account, not a test (sandbox) account.
2

Change what happens when all retries fail

Find Subscription status → If all retries for a payment fail. Choose Leave the subscription past-due.If you use Stripe Automations for retries, check each automation’s final action too.
3

Leave invoice status as-is

On the same page, under Invoice status for failed payments, keep Leave the invoice past-due so the unpaid invoice stays open and shows as past due in Car Storage Software. Marking it uncollectible hides the debt.
4

Save

Click Save. The change applies to retries from now on.Expected result: The next time a card fails all its retries, the plan shows Past Due in Recurring billing and next period’s invoice is still created.

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What Car Storage Software does when a recurring charge fails

  • You’re told right away. Staff who can see Payments get an in-app notification, an email and a push notification: “Card declined for customer: amount due date. Ask them for a new card”, with a link to the customer and how many invoices are open on the plan and for the customer. It goes out on the first declined payment. You get one alert per invoice, not one per retry. Turn it on or off under your notification settings (Recurring Payment Declined or Plan Canceled for Non-payment).
  • Past dues are easy to see. Declined charges count toward Past Due on the Payments overview, show a Past due · declined badge in Invoices, and put a red Past due badge at the top of the customer’s contact page.
  • If Stripe still cancels the plan (because the setting above is still on Cancel) and a vehicle on the plan is in your care (in storage, or at a vendor you sent it to), Car Storage Software starts a replacement plan on the same price and billing day. This happens every time Stripe cancels it while a vehicle is in your care. The first new invoice is the next billing date, so nothing already invoiced is charged twice. The unpaid invoice stays open for you to collect. You get a louder alert saying the plan was canceled for non-payment and whether it was restarted. This is on by default; see below to turn it off.
  • Some plans aren’t restarted automatically: plans with no vehicle in your care (no vehicle on the plan is in a spot or zone, or at a vendor you sent it to; when no vehicle is linked to the plan, none of the customer’s vehicles is), plans with several line items, plans that were already scheduled to end, plans whose next billing date had already passed, and every plan when you’ve turned the restart off. The alert says why. These show as Cancelled · card declined in Recurring billing (they stay in the default list for 60 days, and you can filter for them any time), so they don’t silently drop out of your count. Once you have a new card, set the plan up again from the customer’s billing section.

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Turn the automatic restart off

If you’d rather a plan stay canceled when Stripe cancels it for non-payment:
1

Open Billing settings

Go to Settings → Billing. You need the Payments permission (or full admin access).
2

Choose Off

Under Restart recurring plans automatically when Stripe cancels for non-payment, choose Off. It saves right away.Expected result: The next time Stripe cancels a plan for non-payment, it stays canceled and no more invoices go out. Billing staff still get the alert, and it says the plan wasn’t restarted because the restart is turned off.
Choose On again at any time. It applies to cancellations from then on; plans that stayed canceled while it was off need to be set up again by hand.
After the customer gives you a new card, add it as their default payment method. Stripe retries open invoices with the new card, and future invoices use it.

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Troubleshooting

Filter Recurring billing by Cancelled · card declined. Those plans were canceled by Stripe after failed retries. Then change the Stripe setting above so it doesn’t happen again.
Cancel the new plan from Recurring billing like any other plan. The old unpaid invoice stays open until you void it or it’s paid.