Failed payment recovery glossary
Plain-English definitions of the declines, churn, and dunning terms behind subscription payment recovery — each with the recovery action a bare definition leaves out.
- Soft decline vs. hard declineSoft decline vs. hard declineDeclines
A soft decline is a temporary card refusal that often clears on a later retry; a hard decline is permanent and needs a new payment method.
- Involuntary churnInvoluntary churnChurn
Involuntary churn is subscription cancellation caused by a failed payment (expired card, insufficient funds, processor error), not the customer choosing to leave.
- DunningDunningBilling
Dunning is the process of retrying failed subscription payments and prompting customers to update their billing details before the subscription cancels.
- Recovery rateRecovery rateRecovery
Recovery rate is the percentage of failed subscription payments you successfully collect after the initial decline, over a given period.