Payment failed
See what a failed payment for your plan changes and when, fix it from Billing, and know what comes back by itself once the payment goes through.
When a payment for your paid plan fails, nothing stops that day. To fix it, click your profile picture in the top-right corner, choose Billing, and click Update payment method in the Payment recovery required notice. Only the workspace owner can do this. Once the payment goes through, what was paused starts again.
Until then, your workspace goes through three stages. Both periods count from the day the payment failed:
| Stage | When | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Full access | The first 7 days | Everything works as before. |
| Read-only | From then until 30 days after the failed payment | Nothing can be changed and nothing new comes in. Your widgets and Walls of Love stay live. |
| Displays suspended | After that | Your widgets and Walls of Love stop showing. Your data is kept. |
Check this first
Open Billing. While a payment is outstanding, the Payment recovery required notice sits above the tabs, and the label beside your plan's name on the Overview tab reads Past Due or Unpaid. The notice names two dates: the day to update your payment by, and the day your widgets and walls are protected through. It keeps the same wording after a date has passed.
Click Update payment method. A secure billing page opens, where you can update your payment method and see your invoices. See Find your invoices and update your payment method. When the payment goes through, the notice disappears.
- You're a teammate? Ask the workspace owner. Billing always shows the workspace you own, so the page you can open isn't theirs.
- You own the workspace and there's no notice? Then no payment is outstanding. If a project is read-only all the same, see Project is read-only.
How the two dates work
Both dates count from the failed payment. The first is 7 days after it. The second is 30 days after it, not 30 more days after the first.
Each date is a day in UTC, and the change comes at the time of day the payment failed, so don't leave it to the last day. A later failed attempt to take the payment doesn't move the dates.
If it says Payment failed — action required
The workspace owner gets this notification, under the bell at the top of the dashboard, when the payment fails. It gives the same two dates as the notice, and clicking it opens Billing.
For the first 7 days, nothing changes: your plan's features, your forms, your widgets and your team all work as before. Only an upgrade is refused.
If it says Workspace is now read-only
7 days after the failed payment, the workspace becomes read-only, in every project. The owner gets this notification, up to a day later. Until the payment goes through:
- Changes are refused. Saving a form, widget or Wall of Love and approving or editing a testimonial don't go through. Every page of the project shows a banner, This workspace is read-only, and a refused change says "This workspace is read-only while payment recovery is required. Update the payment method in Billing to continue." A teammate's message ends "Ask the workspace owner to update the payment method." instead. Some screens show only a short failure message: see Can't approve, edit or delete a testimonial.
- Forms close. Their links show a page-not-found error, and a customer who already had a form open sees "This form is temporarily unavailable while the workspace owner updates billing." when they submit.
- Imports stop. New imports are refused, and automatic review imports are skipped.
- New projects can't be created. See Your workspace is read-only after a failed payment.
- Smart Invites stop. Nobody new is invited, and a customer whose next email comes due has their remaining emails stopped.
- Teammates can't open the workspace's projects. The projects are missing from their Projects page. Their roles are kept.
- Paid features are locked in the dashboard as they are on Free, while Billing still shows your plan. Upgrading isn't the fix; updating your payment method is.
You can still sign in, open your projects and see everything in them. Your published widgets, Walls of Love and testimonial share pages stay live, with your plan's features, until the second date.
If it says Public displays suspended
30 days after the failed payment, the protection for what you've published ends too. The owner gets this notification, up to a day later. Until the payment goes through:
- your widgets, and Walls of Love embedded on your site, stop showing;
- links to your Walls of Love show a page-not-found error, and testimonial share pages and video embeds stop working;
- a custom domain stops serving your pages and is set to Disabled within a day, with a Custom domain disabled notification.
Nothing is deleted. The workspace stays read-only, with your testimonials, forms, widgets and walls in it.
After the payment goes through
Look at Billing: the notice is gone, and the label beside your plan's name reads Active again. A Payment recovered notification is sent to the owner as well.
These come back by themselves:
- saving and editing, in every project;
- your forms, at the same links;
- your teammates' access, with the roles they had;
- your widgets, Walls of Love, share pages and video embeds;
- automatic review imports, at their next scheduled run.
These you switch on again yourself:
- A custom domain that was disabled. Open the project's Domain page and click Re-enable. See Custom domain not connecting.
- Smart Invites that were stopped. In the campaign, choose Restart sequence… in the three-dot menu on the row of each customer you still want to email. See Invite emails not sending.
What didn't arrive while the workspace was read-only isn't made up afterwards: a customer who met a closed form left no testimonial, and a customer sent by a Smart Invites webhook wasn't invited. Ask them again.
If an upgrade is refused
While a payment is outstanding, you can't move to a higher plan or add project licences or team seats. Review billing change answers "Payment recovery must finish before an upgrade or quantity increase". Make the change once the outstanding payment has gone through. For the other reasons a plan change is refused, see Why can't I change my plan right now?.
If it says Complete payment to activate your upgrade
This notice on Billing is about another payment: the one for an upgrade, or for more licences or seats, that hasn't completed. It says "Your current plan stays active until the payment is confirmed", and when the request expires. Click Complete payment to open the payment page.
If your card was declined at checkout
A payment that fails at checkout, when you first choose a paid plan or buy credits, starts nothing and takes nothing away: paid features and credits are added only once the payment is confirmed. Start again from Billing. See Upgrade to a paid plan.
Still stuck?
Contact us if the notice is still on Billing the day after you updated your payment method, and include:
- your workspace's name;
- the two dates in the notice;
- what you see after you click Update payment method.
For a refund, a disputed charge or a charge you don't recognise, contact us as well: a person handles those.
Next steps
Was this page helpful?
Can't sign in
Get back into your account when a sign-in code doesn't arrive, your email or password isn't accepted, or you've lost your authenticator app.
Project is read-only
Why a project says Read only, saves fail and its forms stop taking submissions, and how the workspace owner reactivates it from Billing.