Card Expiry Alerts
Proactively notify customers before their card expires to prevent involuntary churn and failed payments.
Card Expiry Alerts let you reach customers before a payment fails. Instead of waiting for a decline and then scrambling to recover, LostChurn monitors card metadata from your payment processor and triggers proactive notifications when a customer's card is approaching its expiration date.
Why Proactive Alerts Matter
Expired cards are one of the most common causes of involuntary churn. When a subscription renewal hits an expired card, the payment fails and the customer enters the recovery pipeline. Even with excellent recovery rates, some of these customers will never update their card and will churn silently.
Card Expiry Alerts short-circuit this problem. By prompting the customer to update their payment method before the expiration date, you avoid the failed payment entirely -- no decline, no retry sequence, no dunning campaign, no risk of churn.
Alert Windows
You can configure when alerts are sent relative to the card's expiration date. LostChurn supports three alert windows:
| Window | When Alert Sends | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| 60 days | Two months before expiry | Annual subscriptions, high-value accounts |
| 30 days | One month before expiry | Monthly subscriptions (default) |
| 14 days | Two weeks before expiry | Final reminder, urgency-driven action |
You can enable multiple windows to create a drip sequence. For example, send a friendly heads-up at 30 days and a more urgent reminder at 14 days.
Alert windows are based on the card's expiration month. A card expiring in March 2026 is treated as expiring on March 31, 2026. The 30-day alert would send on or around March 1.
Notification Channels
Card Expiry Alerts can be delivered through two channels:
The primary channel for card expiry notifications. Emails include:
- A clear explanation that the customer's card is about to expire
- The last four digits of the expiring card (for identification)
- A direct link to update their payment method
- Your branding and sender domain (if configured via Custom Sender Domain)
In-App Notifications
If you have LostChurn's in-app notification widget installed, customers will also see a banner or modal when they log into your application. In-app notifications are especially effective because the customer is already engaged with your product and can update their card immediately.
Self-Service Payment Update
Every card expiry alert includes a link to a hosted payment update form. This form:
- Is pre-populated with the customer's account information
- Connects directly to your payment processor via a secure tokenized flow
- Updates the subscription payment method immediately upon completion
- Confirms the update to the customer with a success message
No code changes are required on your end. The update form is hosted by LostChurn and styled to match your brand settings.
How It Works
- Card metadata sync -- LostChurn syncs card details (last four digits, expiry month/year, card brand) from your payment processor during webhook processing and periodic polling.
- Expiry detection -- A scheduled job identifies cards expiring within your configured alert windows.
- Alert window check -- The system checks whether a notification has already been sent for this window to avoid duplicate alerts.
- Send notification -- An email and/or in-app notification is dispatched with the payment update link.
- Customer updates card -- The customer clicks the link, enters new card details, and the subscription is updated automatically.
Card Expiry Alerts require that your payment processor shares card metadata (expiry date) via webhooks or API. Most processors include this by default, but verify that your integration is passing card-level details. See your integration guide for PSP-specific requirements.
Configuration
Card Expiry Alerts are configured in Settings > Recovery > Card Expiry Alerts.
Enable or Disable
Toggle card expiry alerts on or off globally. When disabled, no expiry notifications will be sent, but LostChurn continues to track card expiration dates for reporting.
Alert Windows
Select which alert windows to activate (14, 30, or 60 days). You can enable any combination. Each window sends at most one notification per card per expiry cycle.
Message Templates
Customize the subject line, body text, and call-to-action for each alert window. Use template variables to personalize messages:
| Variable | Description |
|---|---|
{{customer_name}} | Customer's full name |
{{card_last4}} | Last four digits of the expiring card |
{{card_brand}} | Card brand (Visa, Mastercard, etc.) |
{{expiry_date}} | Card expiration date (formatted) |
{{update_url}} | Link to the payment update form |
{{company_name}} | Your company name from settings |
Quiet Hours
Card expiry alerts respect your global quiet hours configuration. Alerts scheduled during quiet hours will be deferred to the next available window.
Measuring Effectiveness
Track card expiry alert performance in the Campaign Performance dashboard:
- Alerts sent -- total notifications dispatched per alert window
- Open rate -- percentage of email alerts opened
- Update rate -- percentage of alerts that resulted in a card update
- Prevented failures -- estimated failed payments avoided thanks to proactive updates
Next Steps
- Campaigns -- configure outreach for other recovery scenarios
- Email Campaigns -- design effective recovery emails
- Custom Sender Domain -- send alerts from your own domain
- Recovery Metrics -- measure overall recovery performance