Cancel subscription

Subscription cancellations help merchants reduce risk and manage customer expectations with greater control and flexibility. Cancellations can be immediate or set for the end of the billing period and may also occur automatically based on payment process best practices.

Merchants can cancel subscriptions when needed, and automatic cancellations may happen when further billing attempts are not recommended. This can occur if a customer revokes their payment details or if payments are blocked by the fraud prevention system. Each automatic cancellation includes a specific cancel code that explains the subscription termination.

By analyzing cancel codes, businesses can identify patterns and trends in cancellations. They can then understand the reasons and take steps to reduce cancellations.

• If a large number of cancellations are due to invalid amounts, the merchant may need to adjust their discount thresholds or pricing.
• If cancellations are due to issues with the payment processor or fraud prevention systems, the merchant may need to improve their security measures or work with the payment processor to address the issues.

Cancellation options

Solidgate subscriptions include options to cancel at the end of the billing period or cancel immediately. It offers flexibility in managing subscriptions for both businesses and customers.

• Cancel at the end of the billing period
  This cancellation option allows the subscriber to continue using the services until the end of the paid period while maintaining the subscription in the active status. After the current paid period is completed, the subscription status changes to cancelled automatically.
• Cancel immediately
  This cancellation option involves an immediate change of the subscription status to the cancelled one. If the cancellation occurred by mistake, the subscription can be restored, and an optional discount can be applied via coupon_id or coupon_code.

Immediate cancellation is suitable for cases when the merchant and customer have agreed to terminate the subscription with no intention of reactivating it. This type of cancellation occurs when the force parameter has the true value in the cancel by subscription ID and cancel by customer ID methods. It ensures the immediate cancellation of the subscription, regardless of the billing period. However, merchants can not only disable subscriptions via Hub or API. They can also use alert-based auto-cancellation for a more tailored subscription management approach. This helps implement better strategies for handling disputed transactions.

Before cancelling, consider whether temporarily pausing the subscription is also an option. When deciding whether to pause or cancel a subscription, choose the action that best fits the scenario.

You can cancel the customer’s subscription via API or SolidgateHub in several steps.

Alert-based cancellation

The system supports flexible subscription cancellation rules based on different types of alerts for both card payments and PayPal. This approach allows merchants to manage alerts according to their business needs and risk strategy, potentially reducing operational workload and chargeback rates. It also supports strategic decisions when choosing between cancellation at the billing period end and immediate one.

You can set cancellation based on the following options:

• What to cancel

  • Do not cancel anything – keeps all subscriptions active and applies to Inquiry alerts.
  • Only affected subscriptions – cancels the subscriptions directly related to the alert.
  • All customer subscriptions – all active subscriptions for the customer.

• When to cancel

  • At billing period end – keeps the subscription active until the current billing period ends and sends a webhook notification to the merchant.
  • Immediately – applies an immediate cancellation that ends the subscription instantly and sends a webhook notification. Merchants can restore it if needed.

Card payments and PayPal subscriptions follow auto-cancellation rules based on specific alerts. The corresponding tables below show the available options for each alert type, based on the selected action scope and timing, with ✓ indicating the default setting.

Card payments

PayPal

You can apply and manage these cancellation rules by adjusting the settings in the Hub.

Changes are saved and applied automatically.

Stop-declines for retry logic

When you use Solidgate retry solutions for failed subscription payments, they help recover revenue and reduce involuntary churn. However, retries stop automatically if attempts fail due to specific decline codes. In such cases, the subscription status changes from redemption to cancelled because the invoice cannot be paid. These decline codes include:

• 2.09 Invalid expiration date
• 3.11 Recurring payment cancelled
• 4.01 Card is in black list
• 4.02 Stolen card
• 4.04 Lost card
• 4.07 Trusted antifraud system
• 4.09 Antifraud service
• 5.02 Invalid card token
• 7.01 Card token not found