Handling Failed Payments

Overview

Payment failures are a normal part of running a gym with recurring billing. Cards expire, banks decline transactions, and members occasionally have insufficient funds. GymPoint provides automatic retry logic, member notifications, and easy tools for updating payment methods so you can recover revenue with minimal manual effort.

Why Payments Fail

The most common reasons for payment failures include:

• Expired card — The card's expiration date has passed. This is the most frequent cause and is entirely preventable with proactive member outreach.
• Insufficient funds — The cardholder's account does not have enough balance to cover the charge.
• Card declined by issuer — The member's bank blocked the transaction. This can happen for fraud prevention or if the member reported the card lost.
• Invalid card number — The stored card token is no longer valid, possibly because the card was replaced with a new number.
• Do not honor — A generic decline from the bank with no specific reason given.
• Transaction limit exceeded — The charge exceeds the daily or per-transaction limit on the card.

Automatic Retry Schedule

When a payment fails, GymPoint automatically retries the charge according to a configurable schedule:

Default Retry Schedule

• Retry 1 — 3 days after the initial failure.
• Retry 2 — 7 days after the initial failure.
• Retry 3 — 14 days after the initial failure.

If all retries fail, the invoice moves to Overdue status and may enter the collections pipeline.

Customizing the Retry Schedule

1. Go to Settings > Billing.
2. Under Payment Retry, adjust the number of retries and the days between each attempt.
3. Click Save.

Most gyms find that 3 retries over 14 days provides a good balance between recovery and not over-charging members' cards.

Member Notifications

GymPoint automatically notifies members when a payment fails:

• Failure email — Sent immediately after the first failed attempt. Includes the reason for failure (if available) and a link to update their payment method in the member portal.
• Reminder emails — Sent before each retry attempt, reminding the member to update their card.
• Final notice — Sent after the last retry fails, informing the member that their account is overdue.

These notifications use your gym's branding and can be customized in Marketing > Communications on the Templates tab.

Manual Retry

If a member updates their payment method and you want to retry immediately rather than waiting for the next scheduled retry:

1. Open the member's profile.
2. Go to the Billing tab.
3. Find the failed invoice.
4. Click Retry Payment.
5. GymPoint attempts the charge using the current payment method on file.

Updating Member Payment Methods

Member Self-Service (Member Portal)

Members can update their own payment method at any time:

1. Log in to the member portal.
2. Go to Payment Methods.
3. Click Update Card.
4. Enter new card details through the secure Poynt Collect form.
5. The new card is tokenized and replaces the previous payment method.

Staff-Assisted Update

If a member is at the gym and wants to update their card in person:

1. Open their profile in GymPoint.
2. Go to the Billing tab.
3. Click Update Payment Method.
4. If a Poynt terminal is connected, the member can swipe, tap, or insert their new card on the terminal.
5. The card is tokenized and saved to their profile.

Monitoring Failed Payments

Stay on top of payment failures with these tools:

Failed Payments Dashboard

The billing health gauge on your dashboard shows the ratio of successful to failed payments. When this drops, investigate immediately.

Failed Payments Report

1. Navigate to Billing > Invoices.
2. Filter by Status: Failed.
3. Review the list of members with outstanding failed charges.
4. Take action: contact members directly, retry payments, or escalate to collections.

Tips

• Send proactive reminders to members whose cards are expiring soon. Review upcoming charges under Billing > Recurring.
• Keep your retry schedule reasonable. Too many retries can frustrate members and lead to chargebacks.
• Follow up personally on high-value failed payments rather than relying solely on automated emails.
• If a member's card is repeatedly declined, ask them to contact their bank to authorize charges from your merchant account.