Failed payments, explained plainly
Checked against Stripe's documentation, with links to it.
- Guide · decline codes
Stripe decline codes, sorted by what fixes them
Every common Stripe decline code in plain English, grouped by what fixes it: a retry, a new card, or 3-D Secure. With what to tell the customer, and what never to tell them.
- Guide · Smart Retries
How many times will Stripe retry a payment?
Stripe's recommended default is 8 tries within 2 weeks. The windows you can pick, the custom schedule limit, what happens when retries run out, and the codes Stripe never retries.
- Guide · dunning letters
The dunning letter format that gets paid
The format of a dunning letter (or email) that gets a failed subscription payment paid: the five parts every letter needs, the tone of each of the four steps, and full examples.
- Guide · subject lines
Dunning email subject lines, by step and reason
Subject lines for failed-payment emails that say what happened without sounding like spam or a threat: examples for each step of the sequence and each decline reason.
- Guide · security
The Stripe restricted key, permission by permission
What a restricted Stripe key is, the six permissions a failed-payment recovery tool needs and why, how to create it with a pre-filled link, and how to revoke it.
- Guide · subscription statuses
past_due, unpaid, canceled: where a failed payment leads
The subscription statuses after a failed payment in Stripe, what each means for access and invoices, and which setting decides where a subscription ends up when retries run out.
- Guide · Pre-dunning
Expiring cards: the failure you can see coming
How to find the Stripe subscriptions whose card expires before the next renewal, what Stripe's card updater already fixes, and the one email to send a week before. Free scan included.
By type of business
For SaaS founders who'd rather build product
For solo and small SaaS teams on Stripe Billing: a free scan of what's stuck, then decline-aware dunning emails and retries, without building it yourself.
For memberships and paid communities
Membership sites, paid communities and newsletters billed with Stripe subscriptions: recover failed renewals with friendly, decline-aware emails that don't sound like a collection agency.
For B2B SaaS billed by card
B2B SaaS billed by card on Stripe: company cards expire and get replaced, and the person who gets the dunning email may not own the card. How to recover those renewals.