Friendly heads-up
“Your payment didn’t go through.” No urgency, no alarm. Just a clean notification with a one-click fix.
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Recoupt feature
What is a dunning email — and how a 3-step sequence recoups failed payments
When a Stripe payment fails, the customer rarely meant to leave. A dunning email is the automated follow-up that asks them to update their card. Recoupt sends a branded 3-step sequence from your domain, escalating tone as the failed payment ages.
What is a dunning email?
A dunning email is the automated message a SaaS product sends after a payment fails, asking the customer to update their card. The word “dunning” traces back to Old English — dun meant a persistent demand for what’s owed — and the term carried into modern billing as the courteous, repeated follow-up that recoups a missed payment without escalating to collections. In a SaaS context, dunning is almost always polite, branded, and one-click: the goal is to make updating a card frictionless, not to chase the customer.
Why does dunning matter more than retries alone? Because most failed cards need a human action, not a server retry. Expired cards, hard declines, fraud locks, and 3D Secure challenges all require the customer to do something — type a new number, approve a charge, call their bank. A retry loop without an email is a silent loop: the subscription cancels and the customer never knew anything was wrong. Recurly’s published research finds merchants who deploy smart retries plus dunning typically recover ~65% of involuntary churn, where retry-only setups cap out far lower.
A good dunning email is short, on-brand, and one click from a fix. A bad dunning email buries the call-to-action, uses scary collections language, or routes the customer to a login page instead of a hosted billing portal. Recoupt ships strong defaults out of the box and lets you override every line in the dashboard. Pair this with smart retries that prevent the email from being needed and most failed payments recoup before the customer ever sees a notification.
The sequence
The 3-step dunning sequence
When retries alone don’t recoup the payment, Recoupt sends a branded email sequence from your domain. Each email includes the customer’s name, amount due, card last 4, and a one-click link to update via Stripe’s hosted billing portal.
Gentle urgency
“Action needed to keep your access.” Stakes are clear but tone stays human. Still easy to fix in one click.
Final notice
“We don’t want to lose you.” Last chance to recoup before access lapses. All emails are fully customizable in the dashboard.
What goes inside a dunning email?
The point of dunning is to be useful. Every Recoupt email is built around a single, one-click path back to good standing. The fields that go into the message:
- Customer’s first name (or company name, if no first name on the Stripe customer object).
- Amount due, in the customer’s local currency from Stripe.
- Card brand and last 4 digits of the failed card — tells them which card to update.
- One-click link to Stripe’s hosted billing portal — PCI-compliant, no card data ever touches us.
- Sending domain set to your domain on paid plans (DKIM/SPF aligned), or an unbranded Recoupt domain on Free.
- Unsubscribe link required by CAN-SPAM — rendered in the footer, never the body.
- Reply-to set to your support address so customers can reply with questions.
Why should you customize your dunning copy?
Every business has its own tone — an apologetic startup voice reads completely different from a B2B enterprise tone — and a generic dunning email rarely converts as well as one written by the founder. Recoupt ships strong defaults so you can go live in minutes, but the dashboard lets you override subject lines, body copy, and send timing for every step. See every email sent in the dashboard and rewrite any line you want.
Frequently asked questions about dunning emails
How many dunning emails does Recoupt send?
Recoupt sends a 3-step dunning sequence: Email 1 is a friendly heads-up with no urgency; Email 2 adds gentle urgency and clarifies what’s at stake; Email 3 is a final notice before access lapses. Each email includes a one-click link to Stripe’s hosted billing portal so the customer can update their card without logging in.
What information is included in a Recoupt dunning email?
Every Recoupt dunning email includes the customer’s name, the amount due in their local currency, the card brand and last 4 digits of the failed card, and a one-click link to Stripe’s hosted billing portal. The sending domain is your domain on paid plans (with DKIM and SPF alignment) and includes a CAN-SPAM-compliant unsubscribe link.
Can I customize Recoupt’s dunning email copy?
Yes — the Recoupt dashboard lets you override subject lines, body copy, and send timing for every step in the dunning sequence. You can also set your logo and custom sending domain. Recoupt ships strong defaults so you can go live in minutes and customize later.
What should a dunning email say?
A dunning email should include the customer name, amount due, card brand and last 4 digits, and a one-click link to update the card. Keep the tone human and non-alarming — the customer likely did not intend to cancel. Recoupt ships default copy that works out of the box; the dashboard lets you customize every subject line and body paragraph.
Does Recoupt send dunning emails automatically?
Yes — Recoupt monitors your Stripe account for failed payments and triggers the dunning sequence automatically. When a payment fails, Recoupt detects the failure, schedules the 3-step email sequence, and sends each message at the right interval without any manual action from you.
Can I send Recoupt dunning emails from my own domain?
Yes, on a paid Recoupt plan your dunning emails send from your custom domain with DKIM and SPF alignment so they pass email authentication. The Free plan sends from an unbranded Recoupt domain. Either way, the sender name is your company name and the reply-to is your support address.
What is an effective payment recovery email template?
An effective payment recovery email template includes four elements: the customer’s name, the amount due and card brand with last 4 digits, a short non-alarming message, and a single one-click link to update the payment method. For a 3-step sequence, use neutral subject lines for the first email (“A quick note about your [Product] payment”), increasing urgency for the second (“Action needed: your [Product] payment”), and a clear deadline in the third (“Final notice: [Product] access ending [Date]”). Recoupt ships default copy matching this pattern; the dashboard lets you customize every line.
Stop the leak. Recoup the revenue.
Branded dunning emails go live in 5 minutes. Connect Stripe and the first sequence sends itself the next time a payment fails.