Which failed payments can be retried with Success+?
Success+ automatically retries failed payments using machine learning to predict the best time to collect the money. However, not every failed payment can be retried. Success+ checks strict eligibility criteria before scheduling a retry.
The core rule: We only retry payments with insufficient funds
Success+ helps you recover payments that fail because a payer does not have enough money in their account at the time of collection. These are temporary situations where the payer is likely to have funds available on a different date
We do not retry payments that fail for other reasons, such as a cancelled mandate, a closed bank account, or a direct bank refusal. Reattempting these payments will not work and often points to a different problem.
Retryable reason codes by scheme
Each region has a specific code for an insufficient funds failure. The table below shows every retryable code that Success+ recognises:
| Scheme | Reason code | Description |
|---|---|---|
| BACS | 0 | Refer to payer (ARUDD report) |
| ACH | R01 | Insufficient funds |
| ACH | R09 | Uncollected funds |
| SEPA Core | AM04 | Insufficient funds |
| SEPA Core (conditional) | MS03 | Unspecified by bank — only for accounts in AT, BE, DE, LU, SK |
| PAD | 901 | Insufficient funds |
| BECS | 6 | Refer to customer |
| BECS NZ | AM04 | Insufficient funds |
| Autogiro | TK82-1 | Insufficient funds |
Note on SEPA Core MS03: This code is conditional. It only qualifies for a retry if the payer's bank account is in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, or Slovakia. Banks in these countries frequently use this generic code when a payment fails due to insufficient funds..
Additional checks a payment must pass
Even if a payment fails with an approved code, Success+ runs additional internal checks before scheduling a retry. The system ensures that:
- You have enabled Success+ on your GoCardless account for the specific payment scheme
- The payer's mandate is still active
- The specific bank scheme does not restrict the mandate
- The failure code is retryable (NSF check)
- A valid retry window is open - i.e. if there are enough days left to retry a payment in your set retry period
- The payment has not reached your maximum retry cap
- The payment isn’t from a paused subscription or a cancelled instalment schedule, and it hasn’t been explicitly opted out of retries
What this means in practice
If your payment failed and Success+ did not schedule a retry, it is usually because:
- The failure reason was not related to insufficient funds (for example, your customer cancelled the mandate)
- The customer cancelled or restricted the mandate before the system could schedule the retry
- The payment already reached the maximum number of retry attempts allowed in your settings
If you think the system should have retried a payment, please contact your GoCardless account manager or our support team. We can review the specific failure code and eligibility checks for you.