Recurring billing and stored card payments
Memberships, retainers, subscriptions, season passes: recurring revenue is the best revenue a business has, and recurring billing is where payment operations either quietly compound value or quietly leak it every single cycle.
- Settlement
- On your billing cycle, with your normal settlement timing
- Cost basis
- Card not present rates for stored card charges; bank rails price the same invoice flat per item
- Best for
- Any business billing the same customers repeatedly: gyms, services, software, passes, retainers
- Watch for
- Failed payment decay. A few percent of stored cards die every month, and unmanaged failures become churn
Example stored-card margin. Suitable recurring invoices can move to EFT and PAD, priced flat per debit.
Illustrative example. Your fitted rate is negotiated against your actual statement.
How it works
A stored credential mandate is captured with proper consent, then billing runs without further customer effort.
Charges fire automatically on cycle, with network credential on file rules followed so transactions qualify cleanly.
Expired and reissued cards are updated or retried intelligently, because every silent failure is revenue and often a lost customer.
The economics of billing the same customer forever
A recurring charge repeats its structure every cycle, which means a mispriced charge repeats twelve times a year, per customer, for the life of the relationship. No transaction type rewards fitted pricing more. It is also where rail choice matters most: suitable recurring invoices belong on pre authorized debit, the rail built for exactly this kind of billing, with flat per item pricing to match.
Involuntary churn is a payments problem
A meaningful share of subscription cancellations are not decisions; they are expired cards nobody chased. Card updater services, intelligent retry timing and dunning flows recover a large fraction of failed cycles automatically. This is operational machinery we configure at deployment, and for membership businesses it routinely matters more than the rate.
Consent, mandates and doing it properly
Stored credential billing runs on rules: clear customer consent, network credential on file flags, and for bank debits, pre authorized debit agreements under Payments Canada's framework. Proper setup is not bureaucracy; it is what keeps disputes rare and winnable, and it is built into how we deploy recurring billing rather than left for an audit to find.
Common questions
Should recurring billing run on cards or bank debit?
Offer both where it fits. Cards win on customer convenience and instant setup; pre authorized debit is built for stable, repeating relationships, with flat per item pricing to match. The mix is a design decision we model with your numbers.
What happens when a stored card expires?
With updater services and intelligent retries configured, most cycles recover automatically. Without them, the charge silently fails and the customer silently churns. This configuration is part of our deployments.
Do we need customers to sign something for recurring billing?
Yes: proper consent for stored card billing, and a pre authorized debit agreement for bank debits. Clean mandates protect you in disputes and are straightforward to capture at signup.
Can you migrate our existing stored cards from another provider?
Stored credentials held in compliant vaults can generally be migrated through PCI compliant channels. The changeover plan covers it so billing continuity is preserved.
A recommended payments partner of the BC Chamber of Commerce
Find out what you are actually paying
Send us a recent statement. We read it line by line and come back within 1 to 2 business days with exactly what you are paying and whether the structure matches how you run. No obligation, just numbers.
Built for businesses that expect more from their payment systems.