What happens when a subscriber's payment fails on my Substack?

If the subscriber's payment fails, we'll automatically retry and email the subscriber on your behalf, asking them to update their payment method. Our payment processor Stripe will generally retry payments 3 times automatically before a paid subscription is canceled.

If you'd like to reach out to subscribers with payment failures, we've seen that personal outreach from the author can further improve the customer's willingness to update their card or call their bank if they're experiencing issues. But even if you don't do anything, don't worry, we'll keep trying on your behalf.

Note: You can filter failed payments directly on your Stripe dashboard by clicking on your Payments tab and then "Failed".

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