ironbeard_subscription-update-pmt | Stripe Developers | Page 1

high gulchBOT Jan 22, 2026, 5:56 PM

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ironbeard_confirmation-token-flow, 1 day ago, 53 messages

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sweet umbra Jan 22, 2026, 5:57 PM

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👋 heyo

placid pumice Jan 22, 2026, 5:58 PM

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Hi 👋

That is rather specific. I can see you are expanding the latest_invoice.payment_intent in your subscription creation API request.

Let me take a look at the response.

sweet umbra Jan 22, 2026, 5:58 PM

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❤️ thanks!

placid pumice Jan 22, 2026, 5:58 PM

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Well, for starters the only valid payment method type for this Invoice is card

sweet umbra Jan 22, 2026, 5:59 PM

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Why is that?

placid pumice Jan 22, 2026, 5:59 PM

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Do you have bank transfers enabled as a payment method for Invoices on this account?

sweet umbra Jan 22, 2026, 6:00 PM

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Yeah. I've been able to get it to display as an option in PaymentElement

placid pumice Jan 22, 2026, 6:00 PM

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That does not mean it's enabled for Invoices. They are separate payment method configurations

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Oh wait

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You specified you only accept card payments in your request

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 payment_settings: {
    payment_method_types: {
      0: "card",
    },
    save_default_payment_method: "on_subscription",
  },

sweet umbra Jan 22, 2026, 6:01 PM

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In the subscription update request?

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🤔

placid pumice Jan 22, 2026, 6:01 PM

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Creation

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You then updated it to send_invoice

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and then updated it to use bank transfers

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What is it you are trying to do here?

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The latest Invoice hasn't been paid yet so that is still the current Invoice.

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And that Invoice was created when you only accepted cards

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It doesn't matter how you update the Subscription, that Invoice will remain the same

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Those changes will show up on the next Invoice

sweet umbra Jan 22, 2026, 6:04 PM

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oh, gotcha. ~~Can that be updated?~~ Here's my flow:

Following the two-step ConfirmationToken flow with PaymentElements and Subscription:

When the customer is on /checkout/payment, the PE shows up with Card only (and CustomerSession to display previously saved cards). The next page is the /checkout/review/ page, and they have two options: submit the PE and get the ConfirmationToken or click "Pay by bank transfer", which doesn't create a CT.

Either way, the POST of /checkout/payment will create the Subscription. In the GET of /checkout/review I'll either display the payment_method_preview if the ConfirmationToken exists, or payment_intent.next_action.display_bank_transfer_instructions

placid pumice Jan 22, 2026, 6:06 PM

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Unfortunately, I think you would need to adjust your flow so you defer creating the Subscription until the Customer has selected their preferred payment method type. So whatever you need to do in your UI to collect the necessary information to determine the desired payment method type before you create the Subscription, that is what you should do so you can provide the correct payment_settings parameter when you create the Subscription

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Because you are going to create an Invoice when you create the Subscription and that Invoice will be finalized instantly

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So you cannot update it

sweet umbra Jan 22, 2026, 6:07 PM

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Gotcha. Well, the updating of the sub is only an issue if someone is on the review page and decides to go back and change the payment method. So I suppose in that case I just delete the Subscription and create a new one?

placid pumice Jan 22, 2026, 6:08 PM

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Yeah that would work.

sweet umbra Jan 22, 2026, 6:11 PM

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If I want to avoid the possibility of creating Subscriptions that get deleted when someone changes their mind, could I create the Subscription (with a CT?) on the POST of /checkout/review/ and confirm payment on the backend? If I only want to support cards and bank tranfers, there shouldn't be any need for client redirecting, right?

I can't tell if it's bad practices to create Subscriptions that might get deleted if someone changes their mind during checkout (either adds items or changes PM)

placid pumice Jan 22, 2026, 6:12 PM

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That's not bad practice. In fact, we even have a canonical guide for that specific flow: https://docs.stripe.com/payments/finalize-payments-on-the-server?platform=web&type=subscription

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It's really useful for situations where there is some final confirmation step that needs to occur on the server (e.g. checking available stock).

sweet umbra Jan 22, 2026, 6:14 PM

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Hmm, but in this case I wouldn't have a Subscription on GET /checkout/review/ to display virtual bank details if they choose to do push payment. I think I read I could get it from stripe.Customer.retrieve(id, expand=['cash_balance']) but that would still require a bank transfer payment intent

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although, I suppose I could display it on the confirmation page, .e.g /checkout/done/

high gulchBOT Jan 22, 2026, 6:15 PM

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placid pumice Jan 22, 2026, 6:19 PM

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As a test, can you try updating the payment_settings on both the Subscription and the Invoice?

sweet umbra Jan 22, 2026, 6:23 PM

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Hmm yes let see

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InvalidRequestError: Request req_ffKqc50IwnAqJU: The payment method type customer_balance cannot be used with invoices that have the collection_method set to charge_automatically.

So I tried to update the invoice for send_invoice and got:

InvalidRequestError: Request req_76OTZLaisFyn7Y: Non-draft invoices can't be updated

fading plank Jan 22, 2026, 6:30 PM

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hello! fyi i'm taking over the thread

sweet umbra Jan 22, 2026, 6:32 PM

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So, yeah I think having a flow that would allow a customer to change their payment method from card to bank_transfer after the Subscription has been created is probably not a good idea. I'd either need to delete the subscription, or defer creating it until they POST on the /checkout/review/ page (point of no return).

The only sort of issue with that second option is wanting to display the bank transfer details. but I think I can do that on the /checkout/done/ page.

fading plank Jan 22, 2026, 6:35 PM

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i'm still getting caught up on context, but i think that makes sense to me. do you think you're good to go at this point or are there any outstanding questions / concerns?

sweet umbra Jan 22, 2026, 6:38 PM

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I think I'm good for now 🙂 Thanks for steppin in!

fading plank Jan 22, 2026, 6:39 PM

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yep of course! always happy to jump in when the issue is already resolved 😛

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i'll keep the thread open for a bit in case you have followups

sweet umbra Jan 22, 2026, 6:49 PM

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Oh, I just thought of something.

Can you confirm the following?

I can create a PaymentElement on the front end (FE) and tell it to only display cards: paymentMethodTypes: ["card"], if they choose to pay by card, they can fill out the PE and click the submit button and I create a CT and send that to my server. They can click another button to skip the CT creation and go to /checkout/review/
On GET /checkout/review/ I can display payment_element_preview or say "You've chosen to pay by bank tranfer, details will be emailed to you and displayed after you confirm.
On POST /checkout/review/ I can create the Subscription, and I can specify both ["card", "customer_balance"] in payment_method_types. If the ConfirmationToken exists, set collection_method="charge_automatically", otherwise set collection_method="send_invoice".
On GET /checkout/done/ If the invoice hasn't been paid, I can display payment_intent.next_action.display_bank_transfer_instructions (or maybe get it from customer with expand=['cash_balance']).

In this setup, someone who was send_invoice, would get an email with the bank transfer instructions. Would it also include a link for them to pay the invoice on Stripe's webpage with a card?

...I probably just need to test this out lol, I know I'm getting into the weeds.

fading plank Jan 22, 2026, 7:06 PM

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sorry for the slow response, a few other things cropped up

sweet umbra Jan 22, 2026, 7:08 PM

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no worries 🙂 take your time

fading plank Jan 22, 2026, 7:18 PM

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ok so basically your question is if you send them an invoice when they have ["card", "customer_balance"] as payment methods on the invoice, what do they see in the invoice email?

sweet umbra Jan 22, 2026, 7:22 PM

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I was hoping to create a Subscription in such a way that the email sent to them will display bank transfer details (as the customer originally intended), but also allow them to pay by card on the stripe hosted invoice page if they change their mind

fading plank Jan 22, 2026, 7:36 PM

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yep, as long as you include a link to the payment page in your invoice it should allow them to pay with either payment method

sweet umbra Jan 22, 2026, 7:36 PM

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I was just able to confirm that it does display both, so that's nice. I had to call stripe.Invoice.send_invoice in order to finalize the invoice, though.

But even if i do stripe.Invoice.send_invoice(id, expand=['payment_intent']), I don't get payment_intent.next_action.display_bank_transfer_instructions, which is something I can't figure out how to get.

fading plank Jan 22, 2026, 7:36 PM

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i think there's a dashboard setting for including the payment link in the email, but i forget what it's called at the moment

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i think that only shows once the payment intent is confirmed with a customer_balance payment method

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what's the status of your payment intent?

sweet umbra Jan 22, 2026, 7:42 PM

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One second, I had to run afk.

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'requires_payment_method'

fading plank Jan 22, 2026, 7:49 PM

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ok yeah, it won't show a next_action until it's confirmed, so you will need to confirm it first

sweet umbra Jan 22, 2026, 7:53 PM

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So, regardless of if the person pays by card (and has a ConfirmationToken) or chooses to push payment (bank tranfer, no CT), I still need to make a second call to Stripe API (after creating the Subscription) to confirm the payment intent?

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How do I confirm a PaymentIntent if I don't have at CT or PM?

placid pumice Jan 22, 2026, 7:56 PM

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Hi 👋

Sorry this went a little ways while I was out. Let me catch up

sweet umbra Jan 22, 2026, 7:59 PM

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No worries. 🙂 I've settled on creating the Subscription with payment_methods=['card', 'customer_balance'] so that any hosted invoice will allow both. If the customer wanted to pay with card, then i'll have a ConfirmationToken to confirm the payment intent with on the backend.

But I'd like to find out a way to get the bank transfer details. I'm not sure how to confirm a PI if I don't have a CT, and I think I need to confirm the PI in order to display the virtual bank details to the customer on the /checkout/done/ screen (e.g. after Subscription has been created)

placid pumice Jan 22, 2026, 8:00 PM

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Casn you share the ID of the latest Payment Intet you generated?

sweet umbra Jan 22, 2026, 8:02 PM

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'pi_3SsTaSE3d1saT86k1GGVtxqx'

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my subscription creation call was:

s = stripe.Subscription.create(
  customer=cart.customer.id,
  items=[{
    'price': price.id,
    'quantity': 1,
  } for price in cart.prices.all()],
  payment_behavior='default_incomplete',
  collection_method='send_invoice',
  days_until_due=30,
  discounts=[{
    'promotion_code': cart.promotion_code.id
  }] if cart.promotion_code else [],
  #off_session=?
  payment_settings={
    'payment_method_types': ['card', 'customer_balance'],
    'payment_method_options': {
      'customer_balance': {
        'funding_type': 'bank_transfer',
        'bank_transfer': {'type': 'us_bank_transfer'},
      },
    },
  },
  expand=['latest_invoice.payment_intent'],
)
i = stripe.Invoice.send_invoice(s.latest_invoice.id, expand=['payment_intent'])

placid pumice Jan 22, 2026, 8:09 PM

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Okay and have you tried confirming the Payment Intent using our method specifically for Customer Balance?
https://docs.stripe.com/js/payment_intents/confirm_customer_balance_payment

If you take a look at the JavaScript snippet you can see this method is expected to return a Payment Intent with a status of requires_action and the bank transfer details in paymentIntent.next_action.display_bank_transfer_instructions

sweet umbra Jan 22, 2026, 8:11 PM

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Is that only available in the JS lib?

placid pumice Jan 22, 2026, 8:12 PM

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This is for displaying the info to the Customer, so yes this is only in Stripe.js

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If you were finalizing on the server and then needed to go through this step, you could send the client secret back to your application and trigger the process in your front-end

sweet umbra Jan 22, 2026, 8:18 PM

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Okay, so I think I'm back to

Create Subscription on POST /checkout/payment/ which redirects to GET /checkout/review/, and passes along latest_invoice.client_secret and possibly confirmation_token, if they decided to pay by card.
On /checkout/review/, when they click "Submit Order" button, then in JS I either call stripe.confirmPayment(client_secret, {confirmParams: confirmation_token}) or stripe.confirmCustomerBalancePayment(client_secret). Then redirect to /checkout/done
On GET /checkout/done/ I could fetch the latest payment_intent from Stripe and get bank transfer details to display to the customer?

placid pumice Jan 22, 2026, 8:20 PM

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I think that will work! As always, I recommend testing end-to-end to confirm the desired behavior.

sweet umbra Jan 22, 2026, 8:26 PM

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thanks for your help, I think I'm seeing the light 🙂

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one last thing: Does it always require two API calls to create and then pay for a Subscription? Is passing a confirmation token to stripe.Subscription.create() possible?

placid pumice Jan 22, 2026, 8:36 PM

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I don't think so. Using the confirmation token always requires an existing Payment Intent and you only get access to that once you have created the Subscription. Since the token isn't an actual payment method, you cannot provide it to the default_payment_method parameter.

sweet umbra Jan 22, 2026, 8:40 PM

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Gotcha, in order for a Subscription to create+charge in one API call, I'd have to pass default_payment_method?

placid pumice Jan 22, 2026, 8:42 PM

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Correct!

high gulchBOT Jan 22, 2026, 8:45 PM

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sweet umbra Jan 22, 2026, 8:50 PM

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Great, thanks for everything. Have a good one!

placid pumice Jan 22, 2026, 8:50 PM

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You too 👋

#ironbeard_subscription-update-pmt