When an autopay charge fails, Biller Genie notifies the customer automatically and gives them a path to pay another way. When a customer's stored card expires, autopay is turned off for that customer so the system doesn't keep retrying a card that can't succeed. Both behaviors apply to single-invoice autopay and to bulk autopay equally.
What happens when autopay fails
If an autopay charge is declined (declined card, gateway error, insufficient funds, etc.), Biller Genie sends an invoice notification email to the customer. The customer can pay manually from the email — with a different card, ACH, or whatever method you accept. This applies to both single-invoice autopay failures and bulk autopay failures (see Bulk Autopay).
When the payment gateway blocks a charge as a duplicate
Some payment gateways block a second charge to the same card for the same amount within a short window, for example when two invoices for the same amount are charged to one card a few minutes apart. When this happens on an autopay charge for a single invoice, no payment is taken and Biller Genie does not treat it as a decline. Autopay tries the invoice again automatically, first after about an hour, then about two hours later, then about four hours later, and records each attempt on the invoice timeline.
While a retry is waiting, the invoice is not offered for a manual Run Auto Pay, so it cannot be charged twice. If the invoice is paid another way or autopay is turned off in the meantime, the retry is canceled. If all three retries are blocked, autopay stops for that invoice, the invoice timeline says so, and you receive an alert. You can then run autopay for the invoice manually or contact support.
What happens when a customer's card expires
When a customer's saved card reaches its expiration date — or the gateway returns an "expired card" decline on an attempted charge — Biller Genie turns off autopay automatically for that customer. The customer is notified that their autopay has been turned off and that they need to update their payment method. Once they save an updated card, you can re-enable autopay from their customer record.
What you should know
- Failure vs. threshold skip. An invoice that didn't autopay because of a per-customer threshold is a skip, not a failure. The card was never charged and no failure notification is sent. A failure means the card was charged and the gateway declined. See Autopay Thresholds for more on skips.
- Re-enabling autopay after a card update. When a customer saves a new card, you can flip the autopay toggle back on from their customer record.
- The failure notification is sent through the same email channel as your other invoice communications, so the customer recognizes it as coming from your business.
FAQs
A customer asked why they're getting invoice emails when autopay is supposed to handle everything.
Their most recent autopay attempt failed — most likely a declined card. Open the customer's record or the invoice in question to see the most recent payment attempt. The customer can pay manually from the invoice email, update their card on file, or contact you to retry.
A customer asked why autopay turned off on its own.
Their stored card expired, or the gateway returned an "expired card" decline on an attempted charge. Biller Genie disables autopay automatically in that case to stop the retry loop. Once the customer saves a current card, you can re-enable autopay from their customer record.
How do I tell whether autopay was skipped because of a threshold or because it failed?
Open the invoice or the customer's payment history. A threshold skip shows no charge attempt — the card was never touched. A failure shows a charge attempt and the decline reason from the gateway, and the customer receives a failure notification. The two also send different customer-facing emails.