A recurring payment is an automatic charge that runs without the customer's involvement: the card is linked during the first payment, and the amount is charged on a schedule after that. This is how subscriptions, plan renewals and instalments work.
How it is set up
- The customer pays once and agrees to recurring charges.
- The payment service stores not the card itself but a secure identifier — a token.
- On the due date the service initiates a charge against that token.
- The customer gets a notification and a receipt.
Card details never sit with the merchant — they only ever handle the token.
Where it is used
- Subscriptions to services and content.
- Renewing access to courses and platforms.
- Memberships and club fees.
- Regular deliveries: water, coffee, pet food.
What the customer must see
Transparency here directly affects your dispute rate:
- The amount and frequency of charges — before the first payment.
- The date of the next charge.
- A clear way to cancel, without emailing support.
- A notification before a charge, especially if the amount changed.
Why charges fail
- The card expired.
- Insufficient funds on the due date.
- The bank blocked the transaction under its own rules.
- The customer was reissued a new card.
The practical approach is to retry after a few days and to write to the customer as soon as a charge fails. Otherwise the subscription quietly lapses and the user finds out when access disappears.
How this works at MulenPay: see recurring payments.
