Every subscription is charged to one saved payment method. When a card expires, a payment fails or a customer wants to pay another way, you can send the customer a secure link to update their card, or switch the subscription to another payment method they've saved. Customers can do both in their customer portal.
Card details stay with Shopify. Appstle never sees or stores a full card number, so you can't type in a card for a customer. Subscriptions paid with Shop Pay work differently: see If the customer paid with Shop Pay below.
Send a customer a link to update their card
Use this when the card on the subscription expired or was declined, and the customer needs to enter new card details.
In the Appstle Subscriptions admin, go to Subscriptions and open the subscription.
Click Edit next to Payment Info. The Update Payment Method window opens.
Click Send Link To Update Card. A Request sent message appears, and Shopify emails the customer a secure link where they enter their new card details.
Once the customer saves the new card, the next payment uses it. Send Link To Update Card is greyed out when the subscription is paid with Shop Pay or has no payment method. See the FAQs below.
Switch a subscription to another saved payment method
Use this when the customer already has another card saved in their Shopify customer account.
Open the subscription and click Edit next to Payment Info.
In the Update Payment Method window, find the payment method you want. Each saved method shows its card brand, last four digits, cardholder name, type and expiry date. The one in use has a Selected badge.
Click Select next to the new method. A Payment Method Updated. message appears, and the next payment is charged to it. The customer's other subscriptions keep their own payment method.
Shopify revokes a payment method when the card expires without being updated, the customer removes it, or the bank or Shopify disables it. Revoked methods are hidden: when a customer has any, check Show revoked payment methods to see them, marked Payment Revoked with the date they were revoked. You can't select a revoked method.
For a walkthrough, watch Managing shipping and payments in subscriptions.
What your customers can do
When Customers can edit their payment method is on, customers can edit the payment details of a subscription in their customer portal. They can ask for an email with a link to update their card, or choose another payment method they've saved. Shop Pay customers see a note telling them to update their card in their Shop Pay account.
The setting is on by default. To change it, go to Customer Portal, click Customize portal, open the Features tab and expand Page layout and then More options. You can change the wording of these options and messages in the portal labels.
When a customer's latest payment failed, the portal also shows a banner at the top of the subscription with an Update payment method button that opens the same window.
What you see when a payment method has a problem
The subscription page warns you in two cases:
Payment Method Issue: the customer's card expires this month.
Payment Method Not Found or Invalid Payment Method: the last payment failed because Shopify couldn't find the payment method or reported it as invalid. Click Update Payment Method to open the window above, or View Activity Logs to see the failed attempt.
If the customer paid with Shop Pay
Shop Pay is a wallet, not a card. The subscription is tied to the customer's Shop Pay account, and only the customer can change the card in it, from their Shop Pay account. For these subscriptions, the Update Payment Method window says so, and Send Link To Update Card is greyed out. This is how Shop Pay works in Shopify, for every subscription app.
What happens when the customer changes their Shop Pay card:
If they update the card that's already in Shop Pay, for example with a new expiry date, Shopify applies it to the subscription straight away.
If they add a different card while the old one still works, the subscription stays on the old card. It moves to the new card only once the old one is revoked.
To move the subscription off Shop Pay to a regular card, have the customer save a card through a $0 checkout (see the next section) and switch the subscription to it, or have them cancel and subscribe again without choosing Shop Pay at checkout.
You can send the customer this message when their Shop Pay payment method was revoked:
"Hi [Customer Name], the card your subscription uses in Shop Pay has expired or been removed. Please sign in to your Shop Pay account and update your card. Your next subscription payment will then use the updated card."
Move a customer from Shop Pay or a failing card to a new card
When a customer can't update their card the usual way, you can collect a new card with a $0 order. The customer saves a card at checkout without being charged, and then you or the customer switch the subscription to it.
This uses Quick Cart & Checkout Links, which come with the Business Premium plan and higher. If the Quick Cart & Checkout Links page says "Quick checkout links are locked", ask the support team in the in-app chat to unlock them for your store.
Step 1: Create a free product in Shopify
In Shopify, go to Products and click Add product.
Give it a clear name, such as "Update Payment Info". Customers see this name at checkout.
Set the price to $0.00 and, under Shipping, clear Physical product, so no shipping is charged.
Under Inventory, clear Inventory tracked, so the product never sells out.
Step 2: Create a one-order plan for it
In Appstle, go to Subscription Plans and create a plan with the free product. See Create a subscription plan.
In the option's Cancellation step, set Subscription ends after to 1 order (initial only), so the plan never renews.
In the Who can see step, limit the option to customers with a tag that no shopper has, so it doesn't show on your store.
Step 3: Create a checkout link
Go to More, open Quick Cart & Checkout Links and click Create New Link.
Under Products, click Add Products, select the free product and click Select. Then, in Purchase Option, choose the one-order plan.
Under Link Destination, leave Create cart link (don't redirect to checkout) clear, so the link goes straight to checkout.
Open Customer Information and enter the customer's email exactly as it is on their subscription, so the new card is saved to the same Shopify customer.
Open Payment Gateway. Leave the Shop Pay checkbox clear, and ask the customer to pay with a card at checkout, not with Shop Pay.
Click Generate Link, and click Generate Link again in the window that opens. Then click Copy Link and send the link to the customer.
For more on the page, see Quick cart & checkout links.
Step 4: Switch the subscription to the new card
Once the customer completes the checkout, the new card is saved to their account. Then switch the existing subscription to it: use Switch a subscription to another saved payment method above, or ask the customer to open the subscription in their customer portal, edit its payment details and choose the new card.
The checkout also creates a separate $0 subscription for the free product. It never renews, and you can cancel it once the existing subscription uses the new card, so it doesn't show in the customer's portal.
Things to know
To switch a subscription, the customer needs another saved payment method that isn't revoked.
When a customer adds or updates a payment method in Shopify, Appstle checks their subscriptions. A subscription whose payment method is missing or revoked is switched to the new one automatically. A subscription that still has a valid payment method is left as it is. Each automatic change is recorded on the subscription's Activity Logs tab.
In Failed Payment Recovery, Retry as soon as the customer updates their payment method retries a failed payment as soon as the customer updates their card, instead of waiting for the next scheduled retry. See Failed Payment Recovery in Appstle Subscriptions.
In Failed Payment Recovery, Try another saved payment method when a charge fails charges another of the customer's saved payment methods when a payment fails. It only applies to customers who opt in from their customer portal. Both settings come with the Business Premium, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus plans.
FAQs
Why is Send Link To Update Card disabled?
The subscription is paid with Shop Pay, or it has no payment method. For Shop Pay, the customer updates the card in their Shop Pay account. With no payment method, see the next question.
The subscription shows No Payment Data Available. How do I add a card?
No payment method is attached to the subscription. If the customer has a saved card, click Edit next to Payment Info and click Select next to it. If they have no saved card that works, collect one with the $0 checkout above, then select it.
Why don't I see the payment method I expect?
Revoked methods are hidden. Check Show revoked payment methods. If the customer's card isn't listed at all, it isn't saved to the Shopify customer on this subscription. This can happen when the customer has more than one Shopify account. Send the update link, or use the $0 checkout above with the email on the subscription.
Why does the payment still fail after the customer updated their card?
Open the Update Payment Method window and check which method is Selected. If the customer added a new card while the old one still worked, the subscription stays on the old card: click Select next to the new one.
If the subscription was paused after its retries ran out, resume it, then open Past Orders, click Actions on the failed order and choose Retry Order. If the new card is selected and the charge still fails, the decline comes from the customer's bank, so the customer needs to contact it.
The customer didn't get the update email. What should I check?
Shopify sends it to the email address on the customer's Shopify profile. Check that address under Customers in Shopify, and ask the customer to look in their spam folder.
How do I know which card the next payment will use?
It's the card shown under Payment Info on the subscription page, marked Selected in the Update Payment Method window. Automatic changes are recorded on the Activity Logs tab.
Why can't the customer complete the $0 checkout?
If checkout says the customer can't buy another subscription, your Limit subscriptions per customer setting is blocking it. With One Subscription Total (Active or Canceled) or One Active Subscription Total, a customer who already has a subscription can't buy another one while signed in. Ask the customer to check out without signing in, using the email on their subscription, or turn the limit off until they've checked out.