Subscription-Based Payment Methods

A subscription-based payment method saves an agreement that your customer approves for one specific subscription. Chargebee charges the saved agreement only for invoices of that subscription, unlike a saved card or a standard direct debit mandate, which Chargebee can charge for any invoice of the customer.

In the Chargebee app, a subscription-based payment method shows a Subscription only tag on the customer's Payment Methods card:

Supported subscription-based payment methods

Chargebee treats the following payment methods as subscription-based:

Invoices a subscription-based payment method can pay

When Chargebee collects an invoice automatically, it checks whether the invoice belongs to the subscription the saved agreement was set up for:

The same rule applies to dunning retries. If the customer has no backup payment method, Chargebee doesn't charge the invoice automatically. Collect the payment another way, for example by sending the customer a Pay Now link or recording an offline payment.

Add or use a subscription-based payment method on hosted pages

For Pix via Adyen and PayTo via Adyen, where customers can add a subscription-based payment method depends on the hosted page:

You can't add Pix via Adyen or PayTo via Adyen from the Chargebee app. Customers approve the agreement through checkout, or you can import an agreement they already approved, as described in the next section.

Import a saved agreement for a subscription-based payment method

If a customer has already approved an agreement for a subscription-based payment method at the gateway, you can import it into Chargebee as a gateway permanent token. Before you import, check the payment method's documentation to confirm that it supports gateway permanent tokens.

An imported agreement isn't linked to a subscription yet. Attach it to the subscription the customer approved it for before any other subscription charges it. Chargebee links the agreement to the first subscription that charges it, and then charges it only for invoices of that subscription, like an agreement approved at checkout.

Chargebee doesn't receive the terms of the agreement, such as the amount and frequency the customer approved. The gateway or the customer's bank declines a renewal charge that falls outside those terms.

Identify a subscription-based payment method in Chargebee

On the customer details page in the Chargebee app, the Payment Methods card shows a Subscription only tag next to a subscription-based payment method. Hover over the tag to see a tooltip that explains the agreement can only be charged for its own subscription's renewal, not for one-off charges or other subscriptions.

Change the plan on a subscription paid with a subscription-based payment method

A Pix Automático authorization or a PayTo agreement records the subscription's billing plan when the customer approves it, and the customer's bank doesn't allow it to be changed afterward. If you change the subscription's billing frequency, the customer must approve a new agreement.

To set up the new agreement, make the plan change through a checkout for the existing subscription. The customer approves a new Pix Automático authorization or PayTo agreement in the same checkout, and Chargebee saves it for the subscription. The Customer Portal can't add a subscription-based payment method. For PayTo, the checkout for this plan change must have an amount due.