Why Payment Gateways Fail at Subscription Billing

Is your payment gateway hurting your subscription business?

Not all payment gateways are built to handle the complex demands of recurring revenue. In this guest column for Global Fintech Edge, Payway CEO Dan Nadeau breaks down why subscription billing failures are more common than you think—and what businesses can do about it.

While traditional gateways are designed for one-time transactions, recurring billing introduces challenges like card expiration, payment retries, account changes, and the need for intelligent recovery logic. Without the right tools in place, these failures silently erode customer lifetime value and monthly recurring revenue (MRR).

Key Challenges Subscription Businesses Face:
• Gateways that can’t automatically retry failed payments
• Lack of account updater tools to prevent involuntary churn
• Inability to support modern billing models like freemium, metered usage, or hybrid pricing
• Limited visibility into payment performance and failure reasons

What You Can Do
In the article, Dan outlines how modern payment platforms built specifically for recurring billing can help subscription-based companies:
• Recover failed payments faster
• Reduce churn with proactive tools
• Adapt to emerging payment types and billing methods
• Improve revenue predictability and customer satisfaction

Read the full article on Global Fintech Edge:
Why Payment Gateways Fail at Subscription Billing