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Retrying failed or declined credit card payments to prevent subscription cancellation.

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What is dunning

Dunning refers to retrying failed or declined credit card payments repeatedly and automatically to prevent a subscription from canceling. The dunning period for subscriptions usually extends over 30 days. During this time a failed payment is retried a number of times with increasing intervals in an attempt to keep a subscription active.

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How dunning works

Dunning in subscriptions is triggered by an unsuccessful payment attempt. If the subscriber’s credit card has expired and can’t be charged, the payment for their subscription can’t be processed on time, thus triggering the dunning flow. Following the trigger, automatic credit card charge attempts will be made repeatedly over a period of time, e.g. 1 day, 2 days, 4 days, 8 days, 16 days and 30 days after the initial, unsuccessful payment attempt. Both the dunning period and payment intervals can be adjusted to the merchants’ needs in the Merchant Portal. Unsuccessful payment attempt in dunning is often also accompanied by an email notification that asks the subscriber to review their payment method. If the subscriber fails to do so and all subsequent dunning attempts also fail, the subscription is failed as a result. If any of the subsequent payment attempts is successful, the subscription retains its active status and is renewed immediately.