ARB payment decline/expiration notifications

[blackwood821]

Hi,

Years ago when I started integrating with Authorize.Net there was no programmatic hook into being notified when a recurring payment was declined due to not enough funds or the card has expired. There were just email notifications and the silent post was but it didn't indicate a decline or expiration. I see now that there are Webhooks (which are supposed to replace the silent post) and the Account Updater Service. In the Webhooks documentation I see the following events:

• net.authorize.customer.subscription.suspended
• net.authorize.customer.subscription.terminated
• net.authorize.payment.fraud.declined

So here are my questions:

1. Can Webhooks handle notifications for when recurring payments are declined due to not enough funds available? If so which Webhook event is this?
2. Can Webhooks handle notifications for when recurring payments are declined due to an AVS mismatch (such as the credit card holder moved and updated their address with their bank).  If so which Webhook event is this?
3. Can Webhooks handle notifications for when recurring payments are declined because the credit card has expired?  If so which Webhook event is this?
4. Will the Account Updater Service solve number 2 above?
5. Are Webhooks + Account Updater Service the best solution for getting programmatic notifications for the scenarios I described above?

I see in the ARB documentation it says:

"Suspended -- When the credit card information for a subscription expires, the subscription becomes suspended. A suspended subscription is not charged until the merchant corrects the problem. The merchant has until the next run date to correct the problem, or the subscription is terminated."

So that suggests that the Webhook event net.authorize.customer.subscription.suspended would solve number 3 above (credit card expired) but not for the account not having enough funds available...

Any help is much appreciated.

[ZS]

Hi, 

Here's the answer to the questions: 

1. Can Webhooks handle notifications for when recurring payments are declined due to not enough funds available? If so which Webhook event is this?If you enable 'Automatic Retry' functionality then whenever recurring payments are declined - Subscription will be suspended and 'net.authorize.customer.subscription.suspended' webhook will be sendout. 
2. Can Webhooks handle notifications for when recurring payments are declined due to an AVS mismatch (such as the credit card holder moved and updated their address with their bank).  If so which Webhook event is this?If you enable 'Automatic Retry' functionality then whenever recurring payments are declined due to AVS mismatch - Subscription will be suspended and 'net.authorize.customer.subscription.suspended' webhook will be sendout. 
3. Can Webhooks handle notifications for when recurring payments are declined because the credit card has expired?  If so which Webhook event is this?Currently this is not supported. 
4. Are Webhooks + Account Updater Service the best solution for getting programmatic notifications for the scenarios I described above? Yes, Webhook is the good feature for programmatic notfication. As far as I know, Account Updater does not send out notification.

[blackwood821]

Thank you for answering my questions. In regard to Account Updater, I don't need it to send out notifications, I was just pointing out that it would help reduce the frequency of scenario 2 (AVS mismatch). Is that correct? Here's another question for you:

1. Since the webhook event net.authorize.customer.subscription.suspended is used for arbitrary declines and declines due to AVS mismatch (potential fraudulent activity), does the webhook notification contain enough information so that I can know the reason for the decline?
2. You said there is no webhook event for a decline due to an expired card, but you also said that the webhook event net.authorize.customer.subscription.suspended occurs on declines so wouldn't this include a decline due to an expired card? If not, how can one handle the scenario when a recurring payment gets declined due to an expired card?
3. If Automatic Retry is disabled, does that mean recurring payments that get declined won't result in a webhook notification? In other words, is it correct to say that the webhook event net.authorize.customer.subscription.suspended will only fire if Automatic Retry is enabled?

In regard to number 2 above (and from my original post), the ARB documentation it says:

"Suspended -- When the credit card information for a subscription expires, the subscription becomes suspended. A suspended subscription is not charged until the merchant corrects the problem. The merchant has until the next run date to correct the problem, or the subscription is terminated."

So wouldn't that mean that when a recurring payment gets declined due to an expired card that the subscription would then be suspended, which would trigger the net.authorize.customer.subscription.suspended webhook?

[Anurag]

Hi @blackwood821  @ZS

Please find some of the answers below 

1) You can use the getSubscription API now to get details of last 20 transactions associated with it . The  response will contain the  error response for failures . 

https://developer.authorize.net/api/reference/index.html#recurring-billing-get-subscription 

2) we do send out  webhook 'net.authorize.customer.subscription.suspended' when decline is due to expired card

3) Webhooks are triggered  irrespective of AutoRetry enable/disable .

[blackwood821]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply and for the clarification. So to confirm, any time a recurring payment gets declined (for whatever reason: card expired, insufficient funds, AVS mismatch, etc.) the status of the subscription will be automatically set to suspended and if I register for the net.authorize.customer.subscription.suspended webhook event then it will be triggered regardless of Automatic Retry. Is this correct? Also, you said I can call getSubscription to retrieve the reason for the decline so I'd like to confirm that that is the only way to get it and the reason for the decline is not included in the webhook event? Thanks.

[Anurag]

Yes thats correct . 

Please make sure to read through the details on AutoRetry option at  https://support.authorize.net/authkb/index?page=content&id=A1774&cat=A_AUTOMATED_RECURRING_BILLING&a...

before enabling it . 

The getSubscription API call passed with includeTransactions as true will return last 20 transactions of the subscription . 

In coming months we are going to add support for webhook events for payment failures which will be much better to get reason for the failure of payment transaction. 

[blackwood821]

Thank for the info. Yes, that would be great if the webhook could provide information on the reason for the decline to eliminate the additional API call.

[CoreyC]

"So to confirm, any time a recurring payment gets declined (for whatever reason: card expired, insufficient funds, AVS mismatch, etc.) the status of the subscription will be automatically set to suspended and if I register for the net.authorize.customer.subscription.suspended webhook event then it will be triggered regardless of Automatic Retry. Is this correct?" -   

"Yes thats correct . " 

Based on my experience this is NOT correct.  If the FIRST payment of the subscription gets declined, the subscription is suspended, if its the 2nd, 3rd, etc. NOTHING happens at all.  No webhooks about the decline and the subscription remains active and doesn't try again until next month, where it usually fails and doesn't notify you again.

[blackwood821]

"Based on my experience this is NOT correct.  If the FIRST payment of the subscription gets declined, the subscription is suspended, if its the 2nd, 3rd, etc. NOTHING happens at all.  No webhooks about the decline and the subscription remains active and doesn't try again until next month, where it usually fails and doesn't notify you again."

Well that would be quite problematic if that's the case. Thanks for your input.

@Anurag can you validate this?

[blackwood821]

@Anurag can you validate this?