---
title: How to handle failed recurring payments in a community
description: A community member's recurring payment failed? Read the Stripe status, tell the member how to update their card safely, and apply your access rules.
lead:
  - When a recurring community payment fails, check the Stripe subscription status first, then tell the member how to update their payment method securely. Do not promise retry dates or grace periods unless you have seen them in Tapmy or Stripe.
tags:
  - community
  - memberships
source: docs/tapmy-wiki/pages/handle-failed-recurring-payments--bfd79506.md
---

Membership renewals can fail for ordinary reasons, such as an expired card or a bank block. Tapmy takes 3% of your sales on Pro and 1% on Max. Stripe processing fees are separate.

## What should I look up first? {#before-you-start}

- The member, the community, the subscription, the failed payment, the renewal date and what access they have now.
- Whether this is a renewal failure and not a first-time decline or a formal dispute.
- A safe, Stripe-approved way for them to update their card, if one exists.
- The terms the member saw when they joined.

## What do I do when a renewal fails? {#what-to-do}

1. **Read the Stripe status.** Failed, requires action, pending, past due, unpaid and cancelled are different. Do not lump them together as "declined".
2. **Check retries.** Use the real schedule shown in Stripe or Tapmy. Do not tell the member when the next attempt happens unless you can see it.
3. **Message the member.** Say the renewal did not complete, the amount and currency, what they need to do, and where to update their payment. Never ask for card details in a message.
4. **Apply your access rule.** Check whether access continues during a confirmed grace period, ends right away, or ends after cancellation. Change access only according to tested behavior and your terms.
5. **Confirm recovery.** After a successful payment or an agreed cancellation, check that the subscription, order, member access and next renewal agree.
6. **Prevent repeats.** Improve your renewal terms, failed-payment message, support route and access notes based on what you saw.

## How do I know it is resolved? {#what-success-looks-like}

- The member got an accurate, secure way to fix payment.
- Subscription, payment and community access all match.
- You made no promise about retries, grace periods or cancellation that you could not back up.
- A recovered payment did not give double access or double billing.

## What if the member says they fixed it but are still blocked? {#troubleshooting-and-limits}

- **Card updated but still blocked.** Check whether the payment retried, completed and restored access. Do not ask them to pay again through a new offer.
- **Several retries show up.** Use Stripe records. Avoid manual charges that could collect twice.
- **Access continues after cancellation.** Check the end date and your access rule before removing anyone by hand.
- **The member disputes the renewal.** Keep the join terms, renewal notice, cancellation history and messages, and follow the dispute guide.

## What should I keep on record? {#keep-a-useful-record}

Subscription and payment references, amount and currency, failure status, any retry info shown, renewal or cancellation dates, your message to the member, their access state, the result and any manual changes. Remove payment details.

## What should I do next? {#next-steps}

Run a test of cancellation, access removal and recovery before you publish exact timelines. If it is still unresolved, [contact Tapmy Support](/help/tapmy-support) with the community URL, your plan, a redacted member email, the order or subscription reference, time and time zone, and expected versus actual access. Never share private community content, passwords, codes, full card details or secret keys.