Recover a failed membership renewal payment

Use the failed renewal queue when a recurring membership payment did not clear. This queue is for membership renewals; a first-time Direct Purchase payment that captured but did not create a booking follows the separate paid-booking refund workflow.

Open the failed renewal queue

1. Open Operations → Failed Payments.
2. Find the client and membership plan. Check the amount, failure date, reason, and next retry date.
3. Read whether Stripe will retry automatically.

Read the reason, then decide

The Reason column shows Stripe’s response and helps you decide whether to wait for an automatic retry or contact the client:

• Your card has insufficient funds — may resolve on Stripe’s next automatic retry. Check the retry date before contacting the client.
• Your card was declined or Your card has expired — the card will not work on retry either. This one needs the client.
• Authentication is required — the bank wants the client to approve the charge. Only they can clear it.

The Retry column shows whether Stripe has scheduled another attempt. If it has, you will see the date and Stripe will retry automatically. If it says Stripe retry unavailable, your team will need to contact the client or decide how to handle the membership.

Ask the client to update payment details

1. Select Send payment request on the failed renewal row.
2. Tell the client to use the request to update or replace their payment method.
3. Check the queue again after Stripe retries the payment.

Pay now link opens the same Stripe-hosted invoice in your browser, which is useful when you want to share the payment page with a client directly.

A row leaves the queue on its own once the payment goes through. There is nothing to tick off.

When the payment is still unresolved

Contact the client and agree what should happen to their membership. Use your studio’s cancellation or pause process if they no longer want to continue. Keep the membership active only when you are comfortable with the outstanding balance and the next retry.

If you would rather a member could not keep booking while this is outstanding, turn on Block membership on a failed payment. The hold lifts by itself the moment the payment clears, so it does not add anything for your team to remember.

Do not use this queue to refund a paid class booking. If the booking failed after a Direct Purchase card payment was captured, refund that payment in Stripe.