What To Do If A Payment Fails
In this article:
Important Change: We want to make you aware of a recent policy change from PNC Bank that may affect your ACH payments. PNC Bank now expires PNC accounts that were connected digitally through instant verification. Once expired, ACH payments from that account will fail.
What you can do:
- If you use a PNC account to make payments, you will need to re-add or update your account to avoid failed invoices, following these instructions.
- If a failed payment has already occurred, first following these instructions to re-add or update your account and then use the below steps to fix the failed payment.
Basic steps to take to fix a failed payment
- Re-enter your payment information to make sure it's entered accurately.
- Check with your credit card company or bank to receive more details.
- Sometimes they may need you to approve the charge.
If your paying via ACH, and your bank requires an ID for fraud protection measures, please provide them with this information below:
Stripe (our payment processor)-For making payments via ACH: 4270465600 - Stripe Inc, and 1800948598 - Stripe Payments Company
- Once everything is unblocked and in good order with your bank, proceed with payment in AdvicePay in your account or through the email requesting payment that was sent to you.
- Attempt to re-submit payment on your invoice
If you continue having trouble after contacting your bank/credit card company and/or updating your payment details, we suggest using an alternate card or bank account. If you may still be running into issues, please email us at support@advicepay.com.
How to re-attempt a charge on a failed payment
- Click on the link from the failed payment email reminder or
- Login to your AdvicePay account and retry the payment. Click here to access our login page.
- Click on the interactive screen to learn more on how to fix a failed payment via the failed payment email reminder + paying without logging in.
To view the above process in a new window full screen, please click here
If you get the failed email and want to pay by logging in, click on the interactive screen below to see how to fix the failed payment directly inside your AdvicePay account.
To view the above process in a new window full screen, please click here
Tip: You may see a specific "card declined" message displayed when you proceed -- this does not mean your current attempt is declined. This message is related to your previous attempt, and will not prevent you from retrying the payment.
Note: ACH payments can take up to 5 business days to process, so even if the information is initially accepted, the charge may later fail again at your bank. For more info on why payments fail, please read below.
Why do payments fail?
When it comes to transactions made with a credit or debit card, and especially with subscription billing, declines are normal! In fact, studies have shown that anywhere from 20% to 25% of all card transactions fail.
Here are some common reasons we see that explain why your payment may not have gone through successfully:
Credit/Debit Card Payment Failures
There are several things — including technical problems — that may go wrong after a transaction leaves AdvicePay, all of which could result in a decline. Examples can be from:
- Exceeding the credit limit/ daily withdrawal frequency for the card
- Expired cards
- Missing some credit card payments which can stop the payment from going through
- Bank re-authentication requirements
Furthermore, the transaction may get declined in the processing stages due to fraud prevention: first-time purchases to a new merchant, unusually large payment amounts, international transactions, and transactions from high fraud zip codes can all cause legitimate transactions to be declined.
ACH Payment Failures
When it comes to ACH (bank account) payments, the rate of failed payments is significantly reduced. Typically the only time a payment fails via ACH is because there are:
- Insufficient funds in the account
- Incorrect routing/account number has been entered
- The account has been closed.
If you're trying to pay with a brokerage account and you don't have debits enabled OR if you're using a savings account, it will result in a failure as well.
Important: If your bank requires an ID for fraud protection measures, please provide them with this information: Stripe (our payment processor)-For making payments via ACH: 4270465600 - Stripe Inc, and 1800948598 - Stripe Payments Company.
What if a payment failed but you paid your Advisor by check?
If you paid a subscription invoice by check, please reach out to your Advisor to ensure they submitted the check to the invoice that is showing as failed.
If there is no payment method on file with AdvicePay's payment processor Stripe, the subscription invoice likely tried to charge a method that was not present, which would then show it as failed. When an invoice is paid via check, the Advisor must submit the check to the invoice to fulfill that payment.