When a payment fails
In this guide 4 sections
Cards expire and banks decline. When an automatic payment fails, CampRunner tells the family and your team, tries again on a set schedule, and leaves the balance in place until it is paid.
Who gets told
- The family gets an email with the amount and a link to their Payments page in the parent portal, where they can update the card and pay.
- Camp admins get an in-app notification, so the office knows before the family calls.
How retries work
A declined family autopay charge is retried on days 1, 3, 5 and 7 after the first decline, then stops. Retrying on a schedule rather than every day protects the family’s card from repeated declines.
Follow up yourself
- Open the camper’s record and select Retry on the failed payment to charge it again now.
- If the family pays another way, such as a check, use Record payment on their ledger.
- Turn on Payment Reminders under Finance, Settings to email families automatically when a balance is overdue.
Failed payments also appear on your dashboard, and unpaid balances under Finance, Outstanding balances.
Good to know
- A declined card never marks money as paid, and it never wipes what the family owes. The balance stays until it is collected.
- Declined attempts are kept as a log on the camper's record, so you can see what was tried and when.
- Many failures are expired cards. Turn on Email before each autopay charge (Finance, Settings, Payment Reminders) and families are warned before a card on file expires.