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Failed Recurring Donations: Collection Attempts and Notifications

Erdi Yerebasmaz avatar
Written by Erdi Yerebasmaz
Updated over a week ago

General Approach

For recurring donation instructions, collection attempts and notifications vary depending on the type of error encountered. If no successful transaction occurs within one year despite all notifications, the recurring donation instruction is automatically canceled and the donor is informed via email.

Limit Errors

  • These are the most common recurring donation errors.

  • Since limit errors are temporary, collection attempts are made daily until the limit issue is resolved.

  • If the collection is still unsuccessful, an email is sent to the donor every 7 days informing them of the situation.

  • Once a successful donation is collected, the next recurring donation date is automatically scheduled based on the last successful transaction, preventing multiple donations within the same billing period.

Expired / Lost / Stolen Card

  • Donors receive an email containing a link to update their card information.

  • Once the card is updated, the transaction is attempted immediately.

  • If the card is not updated, the system retries every 7 days.

  • If the same error persists, the donor receives a new email each time prompting them to update their card information.

All Other Errors

  • Transactions are retried every 7 days.

  • If the donation remains unsuccessful, the donor receives an email informing them that the recurring donation could not be processed.

Virtual POS Connection Errors

  • These rare errors are not related to the donor’s card.

  • No email is sent to the donor, and the transaction is retried the following day.

Time-Limited Recurring Donations

  • This scenario is not considered an error.

  • If a donor sets a recurring donation to last for 12 months, the instruction automatically ends after 12 successful payments.

  • No additional notification is sent to the donor.

Updating Card Information for Failed Recurring Donations

  • To verify card ownership and transaction authorization, a 3D Secure test transaction of 1 TL is performed and refunded immediately. If the card is suitable for recurring donations, it is saved.

  • If more than 30 days have passed since the last successful donation, a collection attempt is made immediately after updating the card.

  • If less than 30 days have passed, the system waits for the next scheduled collection date and attempts the transaction at that time.

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