Automated Payment Links

How it works

When a recurring card payment declines, Acquired can help you recover it by automatically sending a payment link to the customer on your behalf.

How the recovery flow works:

1. A recurring card payment is attempted.
2. The payment is declined with a response code you have flagged for recovery (e.g. insufficient funds).
3. Acquired.com automatically creates a one-time payment link that inherits the original transaction and customer details. A unique recovery_id tracks the attempt.
4. At 09:00 UTC, an email and/or SMS is sent to the customer with the payment link.
5. The customer pays via the payment link (success).
6. Acquired.com sends a recovery_update webhook with the status: recovered.

Configuration

📘

Make sure you are familiar with how to configure Payment Links, specifically Checkout Setup.

Our team will work with you to configure the following parameters:

• Specific response codes that will trigger an automated payment link (e.g. insufficient funds).
• Channels to send the payment link: email, SMS, or both.
• Expiry time of the payment link.
• Send from email address (company domain)
• SMS send from name

Creating the payment link

Once automated payment links have been turned on for your account, a payment link will be created for each failed recurring payment.

Acquired.com will inherit the transaction details from the declined recurring payment including order_id, amount, and customer_id to generate the payment link. A unique recovery_id will also be associated to track the status of the attempted recovery.

To suppress recovery of a certain transaction, add "attempt_recovery": false to /payments/recurring request:

{
  "transaction": {
    "order_id": "1f1f2a61-5b68-4725-a0ce-9560514ec00b",
    "amount": 15.02,
    "currency": "gbp",
    "capture": true
  },
  "payment": {
    "card_id": "3fa85f64-5717-4562-b3fc-2c963f66afa6",
    "reference": "Custom Ref 001",
    "subscription_reason": "recurring",
    "attempt_recovery": false
  }
}

The recovery object in the response will let you know if a recovery has been triggered:

 
"recovery": {
    "is_active": true,
    "recovery_id": "65c42916-8cfc-4ddc-ad03-f64f20481db2",
    "status": "pending",
    "method": "auto_payment_link"
    },

Sending the payment link

Automated payment links are sent to customers at 09:00 AM UTC on the day following a declined recurring payment. However, if the decline occurs at or after 12:00 AM and before 09:00 AM, the link is sent on the same calendar day.

Payment links can only be sent when there is a valid email address or mobile number associated with the customer_id.

Via Email

Emails containing payment links are customised using the same logo and design settings as your Hosted Checkout. This ensures a consistent branded experience throughout the customer's interaction with the payment link and the email they receive.

During setup, we will configure your email domain to ensure that customers see the email as coming from your business, a sender they recognise and trust.

The contents of the email will appear as follows:

Design mock ups available upon request

Via SMS

During setup, we will configure the sender name for SMS messages, so your brand is clearly visible when customers receive the payment link.

Recovery statuses

There are four statuses that an auto payment link recovery_id may be assigned. The initial status is always pending, unless an error occurs, in which case the status is error.

Webhook Notifications

To be notified of recovery status updates and update your system records, we will send you a recovery_update webhook:

{
     "webhook_type": "recovery_update",
     "webhook_id": "357b7dd8-b709-4c31-98e3-f3accbb9e72d",
     "timestamp": 1701053823,
     "webhook_body": {         
     "recovery": {             
         "recovery_id": "65c42916-8cfc-4ddc-ad03-f64f20481db2",
         "method": "auto_payment_link",
         "link_id": "0c83d32d-9e25-4e5e-a6c5-acaf93b7d5c4",
         "status": "recovered"      
        }
     "links": [
       {
       "rel": "original",
       "href": "/v1/transactions/a7e3fde5-5b83-44f4-9915-782bc7121717"
       }
     ]
   }
 }