Card updater that asks for the new card before the old one fails
Every card on file has an expiry date, and every expiry date is known months in advance. RevenueLeak reads your billing system read-only, lists the cards that expire in the next 30, 60 and 90 days, and sends each customer a short email with a secure link to add the new card before the renewal runs. It works next to the card account updater of your payment processor and covers the cards that updater does not reach.
Cards expiring in 30, 60 and 90 days
Expired cards are the most predictable leak in recurring billing. The card number, the expiry month and the next renewal date are all in your billing data, yet most companies only find out when the renewal fails. Our audit groups every active subscription by the expiry of its default card and shows the recurring revenue at stake in each window.
| Window | What the audit shows | What the card updater does |
|---|---|---|
| 90 days | Cards expiring before the next yearly renewal | Lists the accounts, no email yet |
| 60 days | Cards expiring before the next two monthly renewals | First pre-expiry email with the update link |
| 30 days | Cards expiring before the next renewal | Reminder email, in-app notice where enabled |
| Expired | Card already past expiry with a renewal due | Card update email at once, no retry |
Pre-expiry emails with one link
A pre-expiry email is short. It names the product, the plan and the last four digits of the card, says the card expires this month or next, and offers one button to add the new card. The link opens a secure card update page that needs no login and uses the card form of your billing system. Once the customer saves a new card, the account leaves the list and no further email goes out. Emails go from your own verified sending domain. Card updater emails count inside the monthly email limit of your plan, the same pool as recovery emails.
- One email at 60 days and one reminder at 30 days, both adjustable.
- No email for cards the network updater already replaced.
- Every email and its result shows in the account timeline.
What a network card account updater does
Card networks run account updater services. When a bank issues a new card with a new number or a new expiry date, the network passes the update to processors that take part, and the processor swaps the stored card without asking the customer. For card account updater Stripe customers, this runs automatically for supported cards, and the updated card appears in the billing data with a new expiry. That catches a share of expiring cards before anyone notices.
What network updaters miss
A network updater depends on the issuing bank taking part and on the card being replaced, not closed. Some cases never reach it.
- Banks and card types that do not send updates to the network service.
- Cards that were closed, not reissued, for example after the customer switched banks.
- Cards reported lost or stolen, where the new card has no link to the old one.
- Business cards replaced under a new company account.
- Prepaid and debit cards that the customer let lapse.
For these cards the only fix is a new card from the customer. RevenueLeak checks which cards were already updated by the network after each billing sync and emails only the ones still due to expire.
When a renewal fails anyway
If a card expires and the renewal fails, the decline code is expired_card, a hard decline. Retrying it does nothing, so we skip retries and send a card update email at once, followed by the dunning steps you set. The full sequence of reminders, grace period and final notice lives on the dunning software page, and the retry logic for soft declines sits on the failed payment recovery page. Cancellations that follow an expired card are counted on the reduce churn page.
What the card updater is worth on your numbers
The audit shows the recurring revenue on cards that expire in each window. For example, if subscriptions worth 3,000 USD per month sit on cards expiring in the next 60 days and the network updater replaces part of them, the rest is revenue you can protect with two emails. Plans start at 49 USD monthly on Starter with 300 emails per month, and every plan is listed on revenue optimization software.
Questions about the card updater
No. It works next to it and emails only the customers whose cards the network did not update.
The expiry month and year are part of the card data your billing system already stores, and we read them read-only.
No. Billing systems expose only the brand, the last four digits and the expiry date, and that is all we read.
Yes. They count inside the same monthly email limit as recovery emails.
Yes. The 60 day and 30 day steps are defaults, and each step can be moved or switched off.