Canonical URL: https://chargezen.com/docs/subscriptions/dunning

# Dunning and failed payments

How Chargezen retries failed subscription charges, notifies customers and what happens when retries run out.

Last updated: 2026-10-09

When a scheduled subscription charge fails, Chargezen starts a dunning cycle: it retries the charge on a schedule, tells the customer, and applies your final action if every retry fails. Configure it in **Subscriptions → Dunning** (also under Settings → Subscriptions → Payment Recovery).

## Settings and defaults

| Setting | Default |
| --- | --- |
| Automatic retries | On |
| Retries after the failed charge | 4 |
| Days before each retry | 1, 3, 5 and 7 days; any further retries every 7 days |
| After all retries fail | Keep the subscription active for you to handle. Or cancel, pause or skip. |
| After a recovered payment, count the next charge from | The day payment succeeded. Or the original scheduled date. |

The failed scheduled charge starts the cycle, and the customer then gets the number of retries you set. With 3 retries, a customer has 4 failed charges in total before the final action applies.

## What customers receive

*   **Card declined** email and text message on the first failure.
*   **Payment retry notice** email on later failures.
*   **Final attempt** email before the last retry.
*   An email when the final action is applied.

Failures of manual charges and charges started from the customer portal follow the same path.

## How a cycle ends

*   **Recovered**: any successful payment for the subscription closes the cycle and clears its failure state.
*   **Exhausted**: every retry failed, so the final action runs.

## Failures that don't use a retry

*   **Shopify-side errors** such as rate limits, timeouts or an unavailable service don't count against the customer's retries and don't notify the customer. If they keep happening, the charge is marked as a system error and you're alerted.
*   **Store configuration problems**, such as a disabled Shopify payment provider, block the charge and alert you instead of retrying.

##### Retries off

With automatic retries turned off, the first failed charge sends the card-declined notice and applies the final action straight away.

### Related Articles

[

#### Customer portal

Where subscribers manage their subscription



](https://chargezen.com/docs/subscriptions/portal)[

#### Create subscription plans

Plan types and settings



](https://chargezen.com/docs/subscriptions/create-product)

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