If a payment fails.
Stripe retries automatically over the following days, and you keep full access the whole time — we don't lock you out for a cautious bank. Update the card when you get the notification.
A failed payment is almost always a cautious bank, not a real problem. So we don't treat it like one: you keep full access to everything while Stripe retries the charge.
You keep full access
Nothing is switched off the moment a payment fails. Your plan stays active — your credits, your brands, your seats, your briefs. Your Billing page shows a Past due badge instead of Active, and that's the extent of it.
Locking someone out of their marketing because a card issuer twitched would be a poor trade for everyone. We'd rather you fix the card at your own pace.
Stripe retries automatically
Stripe re-attempts a failed charge several times over the following days. You don't need to do anything for a retry to happen, and a genuine one-off decline — a bank blocking an unfamiliar merchant, say — usually clears on the second attempt without you touching a thing.
If the card is genuinely dead, the retries will keep failing, and that's when you need to step in.
The notification you'll get
When a payment fails, a billing notification appears in ScoutRival — "Payment failed", with a link straight to your Billing page. It's the signal to go and update the card.
It's an in-app notification, so check your bell if you've been away for a few days.
Fixing it — update your card
Billing → Manage billing
Your cards on file are listed under Payment methods.
Add payment method
You'll enter the new card on Stripe's secure page and be returned here.
That's it — the new card becomes your default
A card added this way is promoted to default automatically, so the next retry uses it. You don't need to set anything.
You can also remove the dead card once the new one is in — the row menu has Remove, offered once you have more than one card on file.
Why cards fail
- The card expired. The most common reason by a distance. Check the expiry shown next to the card on Manage billing.
- Insufficient funds at the moment we charged. The retry a day or two later often just works.
- The bank blocked it. Some issuers decline a first charge from an unfamiliar merchant. Approving it in your banking app, then waiting for the retry, resolves it.
- The card was replaced after a fraud alert, so the number we hold is dead. Add the new one.
What happens if it never goes through
If every retry fails and the card is never fixed, Stripe eventually gives up on the invoice and the subscription lapses — at which point you drop to the Free plan.
Even then, nothing you've made is deleted. Your brands, competitors, briefs and articles are all still there; you're simply on Free's limits until you pay again. It's the same landing as cancelling.
Add a working card on Manage billing and the next retry clears it. You lose nothing in the meantime — not access, not credits, not content.
If a payment keeps failing and you can't see why, email us. Money problems jump the queue.