Fix a failed payment or an on-hold plan
What on hold and payment failed mean, what stops while a charge is unpaid, and how to update your card so the plan and your agents come back.
When a renewal charge does not go through, Dodo Payments puts the subscription on hold, and paid access stops until the charge succeeds. Updating the card restores the same subscription, with your leads and setup where you left them.
What you see
A red banner at the top of the app reads “Your payment failed. Update your billing details to keep access”, with an Update billing button that opens Settings, then Billing (/settings/billing). The plan card adds one of two lines:
| Plan card status | Line on the card | Buttons |
|---|---|---|
| On Hold | ”There’s an issue with your payment. Please update your payment method to avoid losing access.” | Update payment method, Cancel plan |
| Payment Failed | ”Payment failed. Please update your payment method or resubscribe.” | Choose a plan, Update payment method |
Embers also emails the account owner when a subscription goes on hold and when a payment fails.
What stops while the charge is unpaid
The account behaves like Free until the payment succeeds:
- Agents pause. Every agent job stops, and Embers emails you that they are paused. Jobs, their settings, and their scan history are kept. See pause an agent and read its scan history.
- Paid screens lock. Lead detail, DM drafts, notes, contact details, the Priority Queue, and every integration, webhook, and CSV export need Solo or above. The dashboard and leads list fall back to a short preview.
- Digests stop. Free gets no digest or update email.
- Nothing is deleted. Every lead, note, and report already collected stays.
See compare plans and limits for the full list of what Free shows.
Update your payment method
-
Open Settings, then Billing
Use the banner’s Update billing button, or go to
/settings/billing. -
Choose Update payment method
It opens the Dodo Payments customer portal in a new tab. Allow pop-ups for the Embers app if nothing opens.
-
Add a working card
Replace the card, or add a new one and make it the default. Embers never stores card details; the portal holds them. See invoices and your payment method.
-
Come back and reload Billing
Once the charge succeeds, the subscription is active again and your plan returns, and the banner disappears on the next load. Agents paused by the hold restart on their normal cadence; if one still shows as paused, resume it from Agents (
/agents).
Common causes
- The card expired. The Billing details card shows the brand, last four digits, and expiry of the card on file. Add a replacement in the portal.
- The bank declined an international or recurring charge. Some banks block these by default. Approve the charge with your bank, then update or re-save the card in the portal.
- Not enough funds at renewal. Top up, then update or re-save the card so the charge can be retried.
- A checkout, not a renewal, failed. That lands on the Payment failed page (“We weren’t able to process your payment”), where no charge was made. Try again starts a fresh checkout; see fix a checkout that failed or did not finish.
If it stays unpaid
If the payment is never fixed, Dodo Payments ends the subscription and the account settles on Free with its data intact. You can subscribe again at any time with Choose a plan. When a lapsed paid plan ends, Embers usually issues the 20% return offer described in cancel, pause, or resume.
Rather stop than fix the card? Cancel plan works while the plan is on hold. Still stuck? Email viraj@useembers.com with the date of the failed charge and the last four digits of the card.
Related
Frequently asked questions
- Did I lose my leads?
- No. Nothing is deleted when a payment fails. Leads, ICP, agents, reports, and settings are kept, and paid features come back as soon as the payment goes through.
- Why can my teammate not see the warning?
- The payment banner is shown to the account owner only, and it is hidden on plans managed by the Embers team.
- Should I start a new subscription?
- No. Update the card on the existing one. Checkout refuses a second subscription with "You already have an active subscription. Use plan change instead."
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