mattwoberts | Stripe Developers | Page 1

compact juniperBOT Mar 16, 2023, 2:20 PM

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gleaming terrace Mar 16, 2023, 2:20 PM

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Hi there. How can we help?

static patio Mar 16, 2023, 2:20 PM

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Hi there ...

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We have a customer, cus_Iunj3sOHVX5fby. They had an invoice on the 11th Feb which failed payment, because they have a failing card attached to the customer (and set for the subscription). On the 15th Feb, they entered a new card, via the hosted invoice page - evt_0MbhB3EHSdXPilfDbgoFY3ET is the event they added that card. Payment was successful, but that card was not set as the new default for the subscription - it was left at the old one (that had previously failed). So when they were invoiced again in March, it failed.
My question - why did that new card that was added via the hosted invoice page not get set as the default for the subscription for future invoices?

gleaming terrace Mar 16, 2023, 2:22 PM

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Got it. So yeah unless you explicitly make the api call to set the payment method as the default, it won't get set as the default

static patio Mar 16, 2023, 2:25 PM

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However if there is no previous default PM for that subscription, in that case it DOES set that PM as the default - it's just confusing me because the customer has added a new card (via hosted invoice page) to sort the payment, and it's not going to be used the next time .... have I got that right?

gleaming terrace Mar 16, 2023, 2:31 PM

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Yeah

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It looks like your code is setting the default for that subscription though

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This request was a while ago, but: https://dashboard.stripe.com/logs/req_exyO3ovTRJXBhm

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However if there is no previous default PM for that subscription, in that case it DOES set that PM as the default
I actually wasn't aware that this was the case

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Are you seeing this behavior?

static patio Mar 16, 2023, 2:34 PM

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Sure are... what happens is that if you have a sub with no default PM, and you add a card.. and then an invoice is created and the first payment on that card goes through - when that happens, that PM then becomes the default for that sub.

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Although now that you've shown me that our code is setting the PM for the sub, I'm wondering - could it be OUR code that did that 🤔

gleaming terrace Mar 16, 2023, 2:35 PM

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I think it may be

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Do you have a recent example of this happening?

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Like a request ID so I can take a look

static patio Mar 16, 2023, 2:41 PM

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I'll just take a look

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I need to just check our code, and if it's not that I can find you an example - can I leave this for a while and I'll get back to you?

gleaming terrace Mar 16, 2023, 2:43 PM

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Yeah that's fine

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We archive threads after some inactivity though, so if it's closed by then you can just post again in the main channel

static patio Mar 16, 2023, 2:51 PM

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OK thanks for your help

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I've just looked through the code, and I don't think I can see anywhere we set the default PM on the sub. We set it on the customer (when you add a card, we check if there is no default for the customer and if not we add this one as the default), but not for the sub

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I'll just create a test scenario now that shows you what i mean about one getting set - hang on 2 mins...

gleaming terrace Mar 16, 2023, 2:55 PM

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Ok

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Also something important to note is there are several sources default payment method

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Which can be confusing

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We mention this on the subscription object in the docs here: https://stripe.com/docs/api/subscriptions/object#subscription_object-default_payment_method

Stripe API reference – The subscription object – curl

Complete reference documentation for the Stripe API. Includes code snippets and examples for our Python, Java, PHP, Node.js, Go, Ruby, and .NET libraries.

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I believe default_source actually is set automatically on first invoice payment if it hasn't been set yet

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But the subscription you shared has the default set on the actual subscription, which take priority

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But yeah let's take a look at your test example so I can fully understand what's happening here

static patio Mar 16, 2023, 2:58 PM

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Oh ok ... right so I've created a new subscription

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sub_0MmIDwEHSdXPilfD4zKOG6tS

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It has no default PM, I've just added a test card for it

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So now I'm going to advance 30 days and let the invoice happen and get paid (it's in a trial)

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I'll do that now...

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Ok so that's happened now, so now the first invoice has been paid, and the default_payment_method for that sub is now set to the PM

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Oh hello.. .I found something...

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gleaming terrace Mar 16, 2023, 3:04 PM

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Ah

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Yeah that setting will do this: https://stripe.com/docs/api/subscriptions/create#create_subscription-payment_settings-save_default_payment_method

Stripe API reference – Create a subscription – curl

Complete reference documentation for the Stripe API. Includes code snippets and examples for our Python, Java, PHP, Node.js, Go, Ruby, and .NET libraries.

static patio Mar 16, 2023, 3:04 PM

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So we set that, and it makes the PM the default the first time it's used, and that means that once this has been set, and the customer updates (for example via the hosted invoice page) to another card, the default remains at the one that was wrong!

gleaming terrace Mar 16, 2023, 3:05 PM

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Yeah. Default payment method isn't changed unless you explicitly say so

static patio Mar 16, 2023, 3:05 PM

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I wonder why I set that... 😬 Not a question for you though, at least now I understand what's happening! Thanks a lot for your help here !

gleaming terrace Mar 16, 2023, 3:06 PM

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No problem

static patio Mar 16, 2023, 3:09 PM

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I'm wondering if I should unset that option, so that the default PM isn't set for the subscription - but yeah I think I need to read up on what happens in that case

gleaming terrace Mar 16, 2023, 3:12 PM

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So if you don't set default payment method on the Sub at all, then we'll attempt to charge invoice_settings.default_payment_method if that's set. And if that isn't set we'll attempt to charge default_source on the customer. If all the above aren't set, then payment will just fail

static patio Mar 16, 2023, 3:14 PM

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Right that makes sense, since we're using the customer portal for customers to manage this themselves it makes more sense for us to unset this and let customers manage it

gleaming terrace Mar 16, 2023, 3:14 PM

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Yeah up to you

static patio Mar 16, 2023, 3:22 PM

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Thank you again, that's been really helpful - awesome assistance 🙂

gleaming terrace Mar 16, 2023, 3:25 PM

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No problem!

static patio Mar 16, 2023, 3:30 PM

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Argh - one more question if you don't mind

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The docs say "With on_subscription Stripe updates subscription.default_payment_method when a subscription payment succeeds."

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that implies to me that when a new card is added and succeeds, then the default PM would change to that, but this isn't the case - is that correcT?

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i.e it seems to set it the first time, but then when you change to another PM - as was the case with the original customer I shared, it "stuck" on the old PM

gleaming terrace Mar 16, 2023, 3:33 PM

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Yeah it's only for the first payment

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You'd need to manually specify the default PM if you want it changed in the future

static patio Mar 16, 2023, 3:33 PM

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Gotcha, thanks

#mattwoberts