Enabling backup payment methods

Reduce passive churn and increase retention with backup payment methods. When you enable this feature and a customer’s primary payment method fails, Recharge automatically attempts to charge their other saved payment methods.

This guide highlights the key functionality and provides instructions for enabling the feature.

Before you start

• While not required, Recharge strongly recommends enabling frictionless payment updates when using backup payment methods. Frictionless payment updates make it easier for customers to add and manage payment methods directly in their customer portal, helping improve the effectiveness of backup payment methods.
• Backup payment methods are only supported with Affinity customer portals and custom customer portals.
  • If you use a custom customer portal, you're responsible for building the customer-facing opt-in and opt-out experience.

How it works

When a customer’s primary payment method fails, Recharge automatically attempts to charge their other saved payment methods (if the customer is opted in), starting with the most recently added. If the payment is successful with a backup payment method, the primary method is replaced for future orders to the address.

You can view whether a customer is opted in or out of backup payment methods from the customer details page in your merchant portal.

Recharge adds a successful backup payment method to the charge activity timeline when it processes the order.

Recharge only adds successful backup payment attempts to the charge activity timeline and doesn’t show failed ones.

Set up instructions

Follow the instructions below to enable backup payment methods:

1. Click Churn tools in your merchant portal and select Failed Payment Recovery.
2. Click the Settings tab.
3. Activate backup payment methods.

4. In the pop-up, choose how customers will start using backup payment methods:

   • Automatically opt customers in to enable backup payment methods by default, or
   • Require customers to opt in manually through their customer portal
5. Click Activate.

Customer portal experience

Affinity customer portal

Customers can opt in or out of backup payment methods directly from their customer portal under Account > Manage payment methods.

When backup payment methods is toggled on, customers see a confirmation that if there's a problem with a payment, their other eligible payment methods may be used to prevent order delays.

When backup payment methods are disabled, customers see a warning that orders may be delayed if their payment method fails.

Custom customer portal

If you use a custom customer portal, you're responsible for building the customer-facing opt-in and opt-out experience.

You can use the following resources to retrieve and manage a customer's backup payment method preference:

• Customers API: backup_payment_methods_enabled
• JavaScript SDK: backup_payment_methods_enabled

Considerations

Consider the following when using backup payment methods: