Configure Payment Retry Rules
Learn how to configure payment retry rules in Zuora to manage failed payments effectively, including setting retry intervals and customizing retry logic for different payment methods.
Zuora allows you to retry payments on a scheduled basis by using scheduled payment runs which will process any invoices that have not been fully paid for customers who have auto-pay enabled. You can also specify the maximum number of consecutive times a failed payment method (for example, credit card) is retried for payment, as well as the ability to define a time period to not retry a payment. For instance, if you define the interval as 8 hours, an automated payment retry will not attempt a payment if the last failed payment was less than 8 hours ago.
This article describes how to enable and configure the payment retry rules in settings for payment processing. For the following customers, we strongly recommend using the Configurable Payment Retry feature instead of configuring the basic payment retry rules described in this article. With Configurable Payment Retry, you can set up custom retry logic or leverage AI capabilities to recover failed payments in a more flexible manner.
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Zuora Payments Standalone customers
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Customers who have access to Configurable Payment Retry
Configure payment retry rules for a specific payment method
If payment retry is enabled in your tenant, the tenant-level retry rules are applied to the failed payment processing by default. You can configure the retry rules specific to a payment method when creating or updating the payment method.
Configure payment retry rules when creating a payment method
When creating a payment method, use any of the following methods to configure the retry rules specific to a payment method and override the default tenant-level retry rules:
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In the UI, open the Create new electronic payment method window, clear Use Default Retry Rule , and the retry rule fields are shown for configuration. Enter your customized values in the fields by following the same requirements described in the preceding Enable and configure tenant-level payment retry rules section.
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Use any of the following API operations. Specify
falsefor theUseDefaultRetryRulefield and specify theMaxConsecutivePaymentFailuresandPaymentRetryWindowfields:
Configure payment retry rules when updating a payment method
When updating a payment method, use any of the following methods to configure the retry rules specific to a payment method and override the default tenant-level retry rules:
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In the UI, navigate to the Electronic Payment Methods section of the customer account, click Edit below the payment method, and then clear Use Default Retry Rule . In the prompted retry rule fields, enter your customized values by following the same requirements described in the preceding Enable and configure tenant-level payment retry rules section.
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Use the Update a payment method API operation. Specify
falsefor theuseDefaultRetryRulefield and optionally specify themaxConsecutivePaymentFailuresandpaymentRetryWindowfields.
Reset the number of the consecutive failed payments
The number of consecutive failures on a payment method indicates how many consecutive failed payments have been accumulated by using this payment method. If you set the Payment Retry Rules to allow a maximum number failed payments attempts, once that number is reached, Zuora will stop using this payment method to perform payment attempts. If you want to use this payment method to process payments, reset the Consecutive Failed Payments field to 0 by using any of the following methods:
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In the UI, navigate to the Electronic Payment Methods section of the customer account, and then click the [Reset] link next to the Consecutive Failed Payments field for this payment method.
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Use any of the following API operations to update the
NumConsecutiveFailuresfield to0:
If a customer has entered a new and valid payment method, you can change the Default Payment Method of this account to the new payment method. The next payment run will use the new payment method to collect payment.
If a new default payment method is set, the Consecutive Failed Payments is reset automatically. The number of consecutive failed payments is per payment method. In addition, Consecutive Failed Payments will reset to 0 once a successful payment has been made with the payment method.
Handling failed payments
In instances where the payment fails based on the retry rules you set, you must determine the appropriate action to take with those accounts. If your process is to "downgrade" the customer or cancel them, you must also take the corresponding action within Zuora to execute the business logic you deem appropriate.
Because every company uses different policies to handle failed payments, Zuora does not perform any actions automatically when a payment fails. To handle payment failures, you should determine whether you want to cancel the subscription (and cancel in Zuora), or call the customer and ask for a new payment method, suspend service, or perform another action.