For: Prommt account administrators and users managing Recurring Plans.
Before you start
This article covers failures on recurring charge attempts — meaning the plan is showing as Active, the customer's card was captured successfully during activation, but a scheduled charge has failed.
If the plan is not showing as Active, the customer hasn't completed the activation step yet — resend the activation request.
If the charge didn't run at all rather than running and failing, see Troubleshooting: Recurring Plan not charging correctly.
What Prommt does when a recurring payment fails
When a recurring charge attempt fails, Prommt does the following automatically:
Records the failure against the plan with the Payment Gateway Response from your gateway
Sends a Failed Payment notification to the customer (if enabled in Settings → Recurring Plans)
Retries the charge according to your Retries configuration — either once, twice, or not at all, at the interval you've set
If all retry attempts are exhausted and the payment still hasn't gone through, the plan will lapse and no further automatic charges will be made. You'll need to contact the customer directly to resolve the payment.
Step 1 — Check the Payment Gateway Response
Go to Recurring Plans in your dashboard, open the relevant plan, and find the failed charge attempt. Check the Payment Gateway Response field.
This is the failure reason reported by your payment gateway and is the fastest way to diagnose what went wrong.
Common failure reasons
Card expired
What it means: The stored card has passed its expiry date and can no longer be charged.
What to do:
Contact the customer — they'll need to provide updated card details.
Send a new Recurring Plan activation request so the customer can complete payment and store their new card.
Once the new plan is Active, cancel the original plan.
Examples by sector:
Hospitality — a guest's card stored at check-in expires before their final billing cycle
Automotive — a customer's card expires mid-way through a service plan contract
Travel — a long-running instalment plan outlasts the card originally used to activate it
Leisure — a gym member's card expires during an annual membership contract
Insufficient funds
What it means: The card doesn't have enough available balance or credit to cover the charge amount at the time of the attempt.
What to do:
If Retries are configured in Settings → Recurring Plans, a retry will run automatically at your set interval — giving the customer time to top up their account.
The Failed Payment notification will alert the customer automatically if enabled.
If retries are exhausted, contact the customer directly to arrange an alternative payment method or send a standalone payment request for the amount owed.
Examples by sector:
Hospitality — a guest's debit card is overdrawn on the day a scheduled charge runs
Automotive — a customer's card limit is reached when a monthly instalment is attempted
Travel — a traveller's balance payment fails because funds aren't cleared in time
Leisure — a member's account doesn't have enough funds on the renewal date
Do Not Honor / Declined
What it means: The customer's bank has blocked the charge without giving a specific reason. Common causes include the bank flagging an unusual charge pattern, the card being frozen, or a new restriction applied by the issuer.
What to do:
Notify the customer and ask them to contact their bank to understand why the charge was blocked.
If the bank confirms the card can't be used for this type of transaction, send a new activation request for the customer to provide a different card.
Examples by sector:
Hospitality — a bank blocks a recurring charge flagged as unusual after the guest returns from abroad
Automotive — a customer's bank applies a new restriction to the card after a fraud alert
Travel — an issuer blocks a merchant-initiated charge from an unfamiliar travel company
Leisure — a member's card is frozen after a lost card report, blocking the renewal charge
Card reported lost or stolen
What it means: The card on file has been reported lost or stolen and the issuer has blocked all further charges.
What to do:
Contact the customer — they'll need to provide a replacement card.
Send a new activation request to capture the new card, then cancel the original plan once the new one is Active.
Transaction not permitted / Card not enabled
What it means: The stored card has restrictions that prevent it from being used for merchant-initiated recurring charges. This is common with certain corporate cards, prepaid cards, or cards with online transaction limits.
What to do:
Ask the customer to provide an alternative card that supports recurring charges.
Send a new activation request to capture the replacement card.
Examples by sector:
Hospitality — a corporate card used at check-in isn't enabled for recurring merchant charges
Automotive — a fleet card can't be used for recurring service plan instalments
Travel — a prepaid travel card doesn't support merchant-initiated transactions
Leisure — a restricted debit card blocks recurring membership fees
Gateway error / No response
What it means: The charge failed before reaching the payment gateway — or the gateway didn't return a response. This is not a card-level decline; it points to a connectivity or configuration issue.
What to do:
Go to Settings → Card Gateway and confirm your account is in Live Mode and your gateway is showing as connected.
If both look correct, contact Prommt Support with the plan reference and the date and time of the failed attempt.
If multiple payment types are failing simultaneously, see [Troubleshooting: all payments failing on your account].
If the customer's card details have changed
Card details stored against a Recurring Plan cannot be updated directly — a new activation is always required. The process is:
Send the customer a new Recurring Plan activation request
Once the customer completes activation and the new plan shows as Active, cancel the original plan
Use the new plan for all future charges
Checking your notification and retry settings
Two settings in Settings → Recurring Plans are critical for handling failed charges:
Failed Payment notifications — alerts the customer when a charge fails so they can take action. Keep this enabled.
Retries — configure up to two retry attempts with a sensible interval. Three days is a good default, giving the customer time to resolve the issue before the next attempt.
If retries aren't appearing as an option on your account, contact your Prommt Account Manager.
Troubleshooting
The customer wasn't notified when the payment failed. Check that Failed Payment notifications are enabled in Settings → Recurring Plans and that a valid email or SMS template is selected. Also confirm the customer's contact details on the plan are correct.
Retries ran but the payment still failed every time. Check the Payment Gateway Response on each failed attempt — if the same response is showing each time, the underlying issue (e.g. expired card, card blocked) hasn't been resolved between retries. Contact the customer directly to arrange a new card or alternative payment method.
The plan has lapsed after failed retries and I need to collect the outstanding amount. Send the customer a standard single payment request for the amount owed. Once payment is received, create a new Recurring Plan to resume scheduled charges going forward.