Dunning management

Dunning management is an add-on on top of subscription billing that recovers payments which failed through no fault of the client: the card expired, there is temporarily no money, the bank declined. We set up smart retries (on good days, not one after another), emails and SMS with a reminder and a request to update the card, a page for updating payment details, a grace period and automatic pause or cancellation of the subscription after a series of failures. Where the payment service supports it, we connect automatic card-details refresh (account updater). The point is to recover “involuntary” churn: some subscribers leave not because they changed their mind, but because the payment technically did not go through. Importantly and honestly: not everything comes back. An expired card and a one-off lack of money are realistically recoverable, while a chronic “no money” or a deliberate refusal are not; we will not promise a specific recovery percentage — it depends on your base and the reasons for the failures. This is an add-on: you need subscription billing already set up — if there is none, that comes first (a neighboring service). Also honestly about the rules: too-frequent retries are penalized by the payment systems, and reminder emails must comply with mailing consent — we set it up carefully, without the risk of fines and spam complaints. Automatic card refresh only works if your payment service supports it (for example, Stripe or Recurly) — only some major services do, and we check yours at the start. If you have few subscriptions or almost no failures, a separate dunning may not pay off, and we will honestly say so. Picture this: a subscriber’s card has expired, the payment did not go through — the system does not silently unsubscribe them, but sends a reminder, retries in a couple of days and offers to update the card, and the subscription continues. The base price starts from 40,000 ₽; it depends on the payment service, the retry logic and the reminder channels. Complex payment-service integration or non-standard email scenarios can increase the price — we will estimate it for your case.

• Subscribers leave silently because of a failed payment, not because they changed their mind.
• Retry attempts go blindly, without the logic of a good moment.
• There are no emails asking to update an expired card — money is lost.
• You do not know how often to retry a charge so as not to run into fines.

• Smart retry attempts (retries on good days)
• Emails and SMS with a reminder and a request to update the card
• A page for updating payment details
• A grace period and auto-pause or cancellation after a series of failures
• Automatic card refresh (account updater) where the service supports it (e.g. Stripe, Recurly)
• Setting the retry frequency without the risk of payment-system fines
• A report on recovered and lost payments
• Documentation and (by agreement) support

• A share of “involuntary” churn from failed payments is recovered
• A subscriber gets a reminder and a chance to update the card instead of leaving silently
• Retries follow logic, without the risk of fines
• You can see how many payments were recovered and how many lost

• We look at your billing, the reasons for failures and the channels to reach the client
• We set up retries, reminders, card updates and pause rules
• We test on test failures, launch and support the start

• How many payments will you recover?

  We will not promise a specific percentage — honestly. Expired cards and a one-off lack of money are realistically recoverable; a chronic “no money” and a deliberate refusal are not. How much exactly comes back depends on your base and the reasons for the failures. We will show a report on recovered and lost payments, without embellishment.

• Will it hold those who decided to unsubscribe?

  No. Dunning recovers only “involuntary” churn — when a payment did not go through technically. If a person has decided to leave on their own, this will not stop them, and we will not push intrusively — that harms your reputation. Retention through product value is a separate story, not payments.

• Do we need this separately from billing?

  If you already have subscriptions and a noticeable share of payments fail — yes, dunning pays off. If there are no subscriptions or almost no failures, a separate setup may not be worth the money, and we will honestly say so. And remember: dunning is an add-on on top of subscription billing — on its own it does not work.