Succes+ FAQs
Why should I use Success+ instead of manual retries?
Manual retries take up your valuable time and rely on your team to act at exactly the right moment. They also mean you have to have awkward conversations with customers about missed payments.
Success+ handles all of this automatically in the background with no manual effort required. Our payment intelligence retries failed payments on the specific day your customer is most likely to have funds available, helping you recover up to 70% of failed payments on average.
Will Success+ retry payments that failed before I turned it on?
No. Success+ will not retry any payments that were submitted before you enabled the feature.
Will we receive a webhook each time a payment is due to be retried?
Yes. You will receive an event notification when a payment fails, which includes a parameter telling you if Success+ will retry the payment. You will then receive a separate resubmission requested event soon after, letting you know that the payment has been retried.
Settings and customisation
How do I turn Success+ off?
You can disable Success+ from your online dashboard at any time. Follow our step-by-step instructions on this page to turn it off.
Can I customise the retry settings?
Yes. You can configure the number of retries and the retry window within your dashboard at any time. If you want to review your specific settings instead of using our default options, you can do so both before or after you activate the feature right here in the dashboard.
How does the custom retry window work?
The custom retry window uses calendar days. To set the timing, we take the number of retries you choose and divide it by your total chosen period. For example, if you choose three retries across 21 days, Success+ takes the total period and divides it by the number of retries, for the above setting, you would have three retry periods of seven days each.
Please keep two important details in mind:
- Because the system uses calendar days, some of your seven-day periods will include weekends, when Success+ cannot retry payments.
- If the final day of a retry period lands on a weekend, we will retry the payment on the following Monday. You may receive the update notification that Monday as well.
Timings and customer notifications
How soon after a payment fails can Success+ retry it?
For Bacs payments, we look for a reported failure on the day after the charge date. We typically learn of standard failures on day one, though late failures can sometimes arrive on day two. The earliest Success+ can retry a standard failure is day four. However, because Success+ focuses on finding the day with the highest likelihood of success, it will not always pick the earliest possible date.
Here is what the quickest timeline looks like in practice:
- Day 1: We learn of the standard failure and reschedule the payment, which triggers the advance notice.
- Day 2: We submit the payment.
- Day 3: The payment is processed.
- Day 4: The new charge date occurs.
Do we need to send new notifications to customers for every retry?
If a retry takes place within 30 days of the original payment date, Bacs regulations do not require you to send a new notification to the payer. However, some businesses choose to send retry notifications anyway to help improve payment success. We automatically send these out for any business using GoCardless customer notifications.
Managing active retries and cancellations
How do I cancel a retry?
You can stop or cancel a payment retry directly from the payments page while the status is still pending submission. Click here to view full, step-by-step instructions.
What happens if a customer calls to pay by card while they are already in the Success+ retry cycle?
If the payment is still pending submission, meaning it is more than two working days before the rescheduled charge date, you can stop the retry by cancelling the payment in your dashboard. If the payment has already been submitted to the bank, it can no longer be cancelled.
If a payment is cancelled during the retry cycle, does Success+ stop retrying?
Yes. Success+ will instantly stop retrying a payment once it is cancelled. The system only retries payments that have not yet reached a final, completed state.
Fees and costs
Are there fees for using Success+?
Yes. Each retry attempt is charged at your standard transaction rate. This is the exact same rate that applies to your regular everyday payments. You can review your current plan details on our pricing page.
How can I reduce the cost of retries?
You can reduce your total costs by lowering your allowed retry limit to one or two attempts within your settings window. However, we highly recommend keeping your overall retry window set to four weeks. A four-week timeframe gives the Success+ payment intelligence engine more days to analyse, allowing it to choose the absolute best day to successfully collect your money.
If you need further assistance setting up or adjusting your automated retry rules, reach out to customer support.