Fluid Payments
Keep the revenue recurring.
Renewals charge on your own processors. Retries go only to the declines that can still clear, and customers can fix a failed payment themselves. Your team sees what renewed, what failed, and what can still be won back.
Retries
Retry the declines that can clear. Stop the rest.
Every failed renewal is classified before anything happens next. Declines that can change are retried on a fixed schedule. A closed card or a cancelled authorization isn’t charged again.
- A schedule you can explainRetries run on day 1, 3, and 6 after a failure. Plans that bill every few days retry after 4, 12, and 28 hours instead.
- Every decline sorted by what can be doneInsufficient funds keeps retrying. Expired, closed, lost, or invalid cards go straight to Action required.
- Stop means stopIf a cardholder revokes recurring charges, Fluid won’t try again until there’s a new payment method.
- Cards that stay currentCards are kept in a secure vault, can be enrolled in the card networks’ account updater, and renew as merchant-initiated charges.
After a decline
What happens when a renewal fails.
The standard schedule, for a subscription that bills every month.
- Day 0The renewal is declinedFluid classifies the decline and sends the customer one email with the next retry date.
- Day 1First retryOn the same card, if the decline could still clear.
- Day 3Second retryThe customer can retry, switch cards, or skip the order in the meantime.
- Day 6Final retryIf it still fails, the subscription waits for your team or a new card.
Customers
Customers can fix a failed payment themselves.
The first decline sends one email that says what happened and when Fluid will try again. From their subscription page, customers can retry, switch cards, or skip the missed order.
- One email per failureIt says when the next retry runs, and it never goes out for a problem on our side.
- Retry or switch cardsTry the same card again, or add a new one. A new card on a past-due subscription queues the retry.
- Skip and reactivateNo charge and no missed shipment. The subscription stays on its original schedule.
- Clear answers“Payment confirmed. Your subscription is active again.”
Recovery
Work a day’s failed renewals in one pass.
Subscription Billing puts a month of renewals on one calendar. Open a day to see what it collected and what failed, then retry, schedule, or email, with a result that names everyone who wasn’t charged and why.
- Retry nowUp to 500 renewals at once, on the card on file. A double click still queues one charge each.
- Schedule for a chosen hourPick a time from five minutes to 23 hours out. An existing booking moves instead of doubling.
- Card emails with quiet periodsThe update-your-card ask waits seven days between sends, and resends skip anyone the automatic email already reached.
- No double chargesA renewal survives a crashed worker without a second charge.
Reporting
Know what you won back, and why charges failed.
Every charge, fee, and failure reason in one place, with how much your retries recovered against your usual rate.
- Payment recoveryWon back, still retrying, and written off, compared with your usual recovery rate.
- Top failure reasonsWhat the processor said, with each reason’s share, amount, and count, by market.
- TransactionsApproval rate, fees, failure reasons, and CSV export across every processor.
- Refunds that balanceRefund all or part, including tax, shipping, or volume only, with a required reason and an optional restock.
Mist for payments
Ask what failed. Approve what happens next.
Mist reads the same billing data your team sees, separates payment problems from real cancellations, and prepares the next step. Anything that charges a card or emails a customer waits for your approval.
- Answers from your own dataPast-due subscriptions, decline reasons, and what’s still retrying, with the numbers behind them.
- Payment failures, not cancellationsCustomers who chose to leave aren’t chased as if their card had failed.
- Nothing sent without youRetries and emails are prepared for review, and your team approves them.
Also in Payments
Your processors, set up for every market.
Payments runs on the processors you choose, with the controls a subscription business needs.
- Processors by countryFluid Payments connects the processors you use, and you choose which one runs in each market.
- Charges by typeLimit a processor to checkout, recurring renewals, or charges your team makes from the admin.
- Routing rulesRoute by payment source, country, currency, amount, or card issuer, with a default order.
- A secure card vaultCard numbers are vaulted, so they never touch your own servers.
- Subscriptions your waySeparate schedules for billing, shipping, and volume, with trials and skip limits.
- Refunds with detailAll or part, tax or shipping only, with a reason on every refund and a receipt for the customer.
What it replaces
One billing system where there used to be four.
Subscription brands often run a billing tool, a dunning add-on, rebilling scripts, and reports that never quite match. In Fluid, renewals, retries, customer recovery, and reporting share one record of every charge.
Usually
- Subscription billing tools
- Dunning and retry add-ons
- Rebilling workflows
- Card-update email tools
- Payment operations reports
- Renewals calendar
- Decline-aware retries
- Customer self-service
- Bulk retry and scheduling
- Card update emails
- Transactions and failure reasons
FAQs
Questions payments teams ask.
Your processors, markets, and subscription plans shape the setup. We’ll work through the details with you.
Do we have to change payment processors?
No. Fluid Payments connects the processors you already use, and you choose which one runs in each country and for which kind of charge: checkout, recurring renewals, or charges your team makes from the admin.
How does Fluid decide whether to retry a failed renewal?
Every decline is classified. Declines that can change, like insufficient funds, are retried on day 1, 3, and 6. Expired, closed, lost, or invalid cards go straight to Action required, and a cardholder’s request to stop recurring charges is always respected.
Does Fluid predict the best time to retry?
No. Retries follow a fixed schedule, and when your team schedules one, Fluid books exactly the time you choose, in your timezone.
What can customers do when a payment fails?
They get one email that says what happened and when the next retry runs. From their subscription page they can retry the card, use a different one, or skip the missed order and keep their schedule.
Can a double click charge a card twice?
No. Bulk retries queue one charge per renewal, and a renewal survives a crashed worker without being charged a second time.
Can Mist work the recovery for us?
Ask Mist which renewals failed and why. It reads the same billing data you see, and anything that charges a card or emails a customer waits for your approval.
Explore the platform
Payments keeps the rest of Fluid running.
Every renewal carries its customer, its rep, and its market into the rest of the platform.
See it with your renewals
Bring us a month of renewals. We’ll show you what’s recoverable.
Show us how your subscriptions bill today and where they fail. We’ll walk through the calendar, the retries, and the customer’s side in Fluid.