Integration Guide

Website Payments Standard Integration Guide September 2008 141
Recurring Payments – Subscribe Buttons
Advanced Features of Subscribe Buttons
3
Reattempting Failed Recurring Payments With Subscribe Buttons
PayPal cancels subscriptions when recurring payments fail. A recurring payment fails if funds
cannot be moved from the subscriber’s PayPal account to your own. Limits on the availability
of funds in PayPal accounts occur rarely, for a variety of reasons.
Temporary limits that PayPal places on subscribers’ accounts are often lifted quickly. To avoid
unnecessary cancellations, you can specify that PayPal should reattempt failed payments
before canceling subscriptions.
How PayPal Reattempts Failed Recurring Payments
PayPal reattempts to collect recurring payments three days after the day on which recurring
payments fail. If the first reattempt to collect a recurring payment fails, PayPal waits 5 days to
reattempt a second time. If the second reattempt fails, PayPal cancels the subscription.
N OTE: Payments made with bank accounts are automatically reattempted 3 days after PayPal
notifies subscribers that their payments failed.
Reattempts will not occur if another subscription payment is scheduled within 14 days of the
failed payment, so that payments do not overlap.
EXAMPLE 3.10 PayPal Reattempts to Collect a Failed Recurring Payment
Subscription Terms:
z A regular subscription for $20.00 USD a month, for one year
Bob signs up for a subscription on Feb. 12.
z On Apr. 12, PayPal attempts to collect Bob’s recurring $20.00 payment, but the payment
fails because of a temporary limit placed on Bob’s PayPal account.
z On Apr. 15, PayPal reattempts to collect Bob’s recurring $20.00 payment for April, but the
payment fails again because the temporary limit remains on Bob’s PayPal account.
z On Apr. 18, Bob takes action on his PayPal account, and PayPal lifts the temporary limit.
z On Apr. 20, PayPal reattempts to collect Bob’s recurring $20.00 payment for April, and the
payment succeeds.
z On May 12, PayPal attempts to collect Bob’s recurring $20.00 payment for May, and the
payment succeeds.
Specifying to Reattempt Failed Recurring Payments With Subscribe Buttons
Do one of following to add Subscribe buttons to your website that reattempt failed recurring
payments instead of canceling subscriptions immediately:
z Specify that you want PayPal to reattempt recurring payments when you create Subscribe
buttons by using the creation tool on the PayPal website.
See Step 8 of “Step 1 – Specifying Basic Features of Your Subscribe Button” on page 144.
z Specify that you want PayPal to reattempt failed recurring payments in the HTML button
code that you write manually.
See “Sample HTML Code for a Subscribe Button That Reattempts Payments” on page 172.