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When a renewal charge fails, Bachs doesn’t cancel the subscription straight away. It moves to past_due and enters an automated payment recovery (dunning) flow: a fixed schedule of retries, plus an email to the customer with a hosted link to update their card. Most failures are transient (an expired card, a temporary decline), so recovery gives them a chance to fix it before anything is lost. The same card-update flow is reachable from the customer portal, so a customer who never opens the email can still fix it themselves.

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The retry schedule

The first failed charge sets the invoice’s status so Bachs can retry it on a fixed cadence:
  • Retry 1: 1 day after the first failure
  • Retry 2: 3 days after retry 1
  • Retry 3: 5 days after retry 2
That’s three retries over roughly nine days. While retries are pending, the subscription stays past_due and each failed attempt emits invoice.payment_failed and re-sends the customer email. A success at any point marks the invoice paid, reactivates the subscription (past_due → active), and emits invoice.paid. If the third retry fails, recovery is exhausted.

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When recovery is exhausted

What happens when retries run out is a per-account setting, so you can match your business.
The subscription moves to canceled with a cancellation reason of payment_failed, and Bachs emits customer.subscription.deleted. This is terminal: a later payment can’t revive it, and the customer starts a new subscription.
You set this under your subscription settings; the default is Cancel.

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Helping customers recover

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The failed-payment email

On every failed charge, Bachs emails the customer to tell them the payment failed. While the subscription is still recoverable (past_due or unpaid), that email includes a button linking to a hosted “update payment method” page. The copy differs depending on whether retries are still pending or recovery has been exhausted. The email is best-effort and never blocks billing; if it can’t be sent, retries still run on schedule. The hosted page lets the customer enter a new card without you building any UI. Bachs mints the link on demand when the failed-payment email is sent:
  • It’s only created while the subscription is past_due or unpaid.
  • The link is valid for 30 days.
  • When the customer completes it, Bachs saves the new card, charges the outstanding invoice, and on success reactivates the subscription (past_due/unpaid → active).

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Statuses at a glance

Managing subscriptions

Change the plan, or cancel from the API.

Subscription webhook events

The invoice.* and customer.subscription.* events recovery emits.