What Is a Billing Mandate and Why It Can Fail
A billing mandate is the legal and technical agreement between you and a service that authorizes it to automatically charge your card without your presence. The mandate is established during your first subscription payment.
When the renewal date arrives, the service initiates an MIT (Merchant Initiated Transaction) based on this mandate. If the mandate turns out to be invalid or the bank refuses to honor it, you receive a failed payment notification.
Why a Mandate Stops Working
The most common causes:
- Card reissued. The most frequent reason. If your bank issued you a new card (different number or expiry date), the old mandate becomes invalid.
- Card blocked or expired. The bank declines all transactions on a blocked or expired card.
- Insufficient funds or limit exceeded. Not enough balance or the daily limit is reached at the time of renewal.
- Bank revoked recurring payment permission. Banks sometimes automatically remove this permission after a dispute or during a security system update.
- Merchant not sending a correct network transaction ID. Technical errors in how the merchant formats the MIT request.
- Regulatory requirement change. In some countries banks are required to periodically demand mandate re-confirmation.
How to Re-Authorize the Mandate
Check the email from the service. Most platforms (Netflix, Spotify, Adobe, AWS) send an email asking you to update your payment details. Follow the link in the email.
Log into your account. Find the "Payment" or "Billing" section and update your card manually.
Enter new card details. If your card was reissued, enter the new card's details. This creates a new mandate.
Confirm via 3DS. When adding a new card, the service will likely run a verification charge with 3DS authentication to establish the new mandate.
Check your balance. Make sure there are enough funds on the card for the charge.
Contact your bank. If the card is new and has sufficient funds but the payment still fails, call your bank and ask whether a recurring transaction block is in place.
FAQ
What happens to my subscription if the mandate fails? It depends on the service's policy. Most platforms offer a grace period of a few days and retry the charge. If retries also fail, the subscription is paused or cancelled.
Do I need to re-establish the mandate every time my card is reissued? Yes, if the bank issues a new card with a new number. Some banks use Account Updater (automatic card data update for merchants), but this is not guaranteed.
How can I avoid missing when a mandate stops working? Watch for email notifications from services. You can also enable transaction alerts in your banking app to see when charges occur.
Want your subscriptions to renew without interruption? Try Marix. Virtual cards with international billing standard support keep your subscriptions running smoothly.