Retry Collection
Re-attempt payment on a failed or past-due invoice immediately — refresh the saved card, charge once, and fall back to the customer's most recent working card.
Retry collection lets you re-attempt an automatic charge on a failed or past-due invoice right now, instead of waiting for the next scheduled dunning step. It is the quickest way to resolve an invoice when a customer says "I've sorted my card — please try again."
Where to Find It#
Open the invoice from the customer's account (or the invoices dashboard). Eligible invoices show a Retry collection button in the invoice header.
The button appears only when all of these are true:
| Condition | Why |
|---|---|
| Charge invoice | Only invoices that collect money can be retried. |
| Automatic collection | The invoice is collected from a saved card, not paid manually. |
| Failed or Past Due | The invoice is in a state where payment did not complete. |
| Outstanding balance | There is still something to collect. Invoices written off with Stop collection have a zero balance and stay closed. |
What a Retry Does#
Selecting the button opens a confirmation that spells out the steps before any money moves:
- Refresh or auto-provision the saved card from the gateway — resolves a stale token, or recovers the customer's card from their payment gateway record when none is on file.
- Move the invoice back to Pending and re-charge once — a single charge against the resolved card, not a retry loop.
- Fall back to the latest valid card if the saved card is contaminated or declines — the customer's most-recently-working card is tried instead (capped at three attempts).
- Email the customer the outcome — a payment confirmation on success; no charge is taken when no usable card is found.
Select Confirm and retry to proceed.
Real money moves on success — the customer's card is charged the invoice balance immediately. Only retry when the customer expects it.
Outcomes#
The result is reported as soon as the retry completes:
| Outcome | What it means |
|---|---|
| Payment collected | The saved card paid the balance. The invoice moves to Paid and a receipt is emailed to the customer. |
| Recovered card charged | The saved card was missing or declined, so the customer's most-recently-working card was charged instead. |
| All cards declined | Every card on file was declined — the customer must update their payment method before another attempt. |
| No usable card on file | No chargeable card could be found — ask the customer to re-add their card. |
Successful retries appear immediately on the invoice and in the account's transaction history; the dunning cycle for that invoice completes rather than sending further reminders.
Retry vs the Dunning Schedule#
You never have to retry manually — the dunning campaign keeps working the invoice on its own schedule. Reach for Retry collection when:
- the customer has just fixed their card and wants to settle now;
- a payment failed for a temporary reason (an expired card that has since been replaced, a temporary limit);
- you want to resolve the invoice before the end-of-cycle actions expire the subscription.
If the retry reports that all cards were declined, point the customer to their account wallet to add a fresh card — then retry again.