WooCommerce subscriptions

Hi @mortenresen,

Thank you for contacting us.

1. Yes, this plugin is fully compatible with WooCommerce Subscriptions which includes the free trial functionality.

2. Funds are automatically withdrawn when the recurring payment is processed as long as you have the charge type option set to capture. There is no manual intervention required on the part of the merchant. If you have the charge_type set to authorize then the funds are captured automatically when you update the order status to completed or you use the capture authorized charge feature located in the order details page.

Kind Regards,

Hey!

Thank you very much for your thorough explanation. I have two more issues:

1. I have just tried to enable the plugin – and suddenly existing customers are created as “customers” in the Stripe Dashboard. Why is this happening? They have created a subscription/order with our existing gateway and not with Stripe. So why are they ending up on the customer list in Stripe – and how can I prevent this?

2. Can I have our existing payment gateway plugin activated to still handle our old/existing subscriptions – but then just turning it off as a payment method in “WooCommerce/Settings/Payments” only enabling Stripe? So all old subscriptions will be handled by existing gateway and all new subs will be created with Stripe?

3. There are a possible issue with SCA and subscriptions with free trials because the might be seen as subscriptions with changing recurring amount which is not allowed. Do you know how Stripe handles this?

Thank you very much in advance!

Best,
Morten

1) Your existing customers in WordPress are created in Stripe so your customer can save payment methods with Stripe etc. It is designed this way to keep your WordPress site in sync with Stripe. If your customers aren’t created in Stripe then they can’t save payment methods and saved payment methods are used to process subscriptions. You don’t want to prevent that.

2) That’s a question for the developers of your other payment plugin. I can’t comment on what’s possible within another payment plugin. You could just leave your old gateway enabled but hide it on the checkout page using some CSS.

3) I am not aware of any SCA restrictions regarding subscriptions with a free trial. The amount of the subscription isn’t changing, a free trial just means the start date of the subscription is some time in the future.

Kind Regards,

Thanks very much!

1: Just to understand: Existing subscription customers are created in Stripe even though they have signed up and are handled trough a different payment gateway?

I completely understand why customers who have purchased a subscription through Stripe gateway should be created as customers. But I’m a bit unsure why existing customers are created in Stripe when their subscriptions are handled by another gateway and not Stripe?

How do I prevent “double payment” and make sure that users who purchased a subscription with the old gateway and are created as customers in Stripe are only billed through the old gateway and not also in Stripe?

2: Thanks

3: The issue is the 3D Secure/2FA authorization. When a free trial is created no payment are being made and therefore no prompt for 3D Secure/2FA authorization. But as I understand SCA requires 2FA on first payment on recurring payments. So how do I prevent that the first real payment after trial period has ended will fail because of no 2FA on the payment?

Best,
Morten

This is the issue I’m referring to in question 3:

https://support.stripe.com/questions/no-prompt-for-3d-secure-3ds-authentication-when-customer-creates-a-subscription-with-a-trial-period

1. Yes, because who is to say they won’t come back to your site in the future and buy another subscription. They will need to exist in Stripe in order for their payment method to be saved for recurring payments.

That’s not how WooCommerce Subscriptions work. Just because your customer used another payment gateway has been created in Stripe doesn’t mean they’re going to get double billed. A recurring payment is processed by WCS based on the payment gateway associated with the subscription. You don’t have anything to worry about regarding “double payment”.

3. The version I am releasing later today or tomorrow accounts for this scenario. The 3DS prompt will appear regardless of whether the subscription has a trial period or not.

Kind Regards,

Version 3.2.10 released.

Hey!

Thank you so much for adding SCA support to the plugin. I’m just testing on staging now and have two questions:

1. What difference will it make if I also enable 3D Secure?

2. When I create test transactions with WooCommerce subscriptions with 30 day free trials the 3D Secure prompt is showing correctly. But where are the info about this card being 3D secured/2FA stored in Stripe?

The important thing is of course that Stripe/the plugin “knows” that the card was already 2FA upon free trial signup when the first real transaction is being processed 30 days later.

I have checked the log in Stripe and the card details saved in Stripe but I can’t really see where it’s stored that the card has been 3D Secured. I hope it makes sense?

3. How can I send out emails to active WooCommerce subscribers when their card are about to expire – just as I can if I create Stripe Subsripctions? I don’t want to send out to all customers but only to those with an active WooCommerce subscription.

Best,
Morten

Hi @mortenresen,

The plugin has always supported SCA, the most recent update just ensure 3DS secure was triggered for subscriptions that have a trial period.

1. Stripe already dynamically determines when 3DS is required. The force 3D secure option in the plugin is just there if you want to override the Stripe 3DS decision. It will show if it’s supported regardless of the Stripe radar logic.

2. The fact that the card was saved and 3DS was presented is proof that 3DS was passed. You can always check the logs to review is was required.

3. That would require custom development on your end. Stripe doesn’t issue a card expired webhook. They do however issue an automatic payment method update webhook you could take a look at: https://stripe.com/docs/saving-cards#automatic-card-updates. You could create a recurring job that looks for expiring cards and sends emails out to users that have an active subscription.

Kind Regards,

Ok. Thanks.

I have just tested 3D secure on staging with Stripe in test mode and with Stripe test credit cards. When I do this I get a 3D Secure test popup box. So it seems to work correct in test mode.

But when I enable the plugin on the live site and purchase a subscription with a free trial (so no initial payment – only after 30 days) I don’t get any 3D secure/2FA popup/prompt – not even if I enable Force 3D Secure. The order is just processed and the card is authorized correctly (using Visa). So the card is not being 3D secured. Do you know what might cause the 3D Secure prompt not to show on live site?

Best,
Morten

To follow up I have just asked Strip why 3D Secure is not showing up. The support says:

“In cases where a customers card or bank does not require 3D secure for the transaction the 3D secure notification will not pop up and the transaction will go through.

So I think that is whats going on here with the card and why the 3D secure si not popping up because the bank of the customers card does not require authentication or 3Descure.

I’m afraid that process can only be done once the payment of the card actually goes through not before. Because Stripe is not sending a charge to be processed when a free trial is started. So the bank has no knowledge or signal (like when a transactions processed) In free trial stage.

The bank will only be notified once an actual charge is trying to process.”

So: How will the plugin make sure that the free trial IS actually 3D Secured so the first real payment will not fail?

Hi @mortenresen,

This is not an issue with the plug-in. If 3-D secure is not required when the payment method is saved for a free trial then it will not be required on the first recurring payment.

Stripe has correctly pointed out that 3-D secure will not appear if it is not supported by the credit card. In those instances even attempting to force 3-D secure will not work because it is simply not supported by the card. If 3-D secure is not supported then it will not be prompted for on the first recurring payment of the subscription. The recurring payment will process automatically without any issues.

The moral of the story is Stripe will not require 3-D secure for any kind of payments if it is not supported by the credit card. In those instances the payment will be processed without the need for authentication.

Kind Regards,

Ok. Thanks very much for taking the time to clear this out for me. And sorry for keep asking these questions, but it’s because it’s really the heart and soul of our business.

My greatest fear is if we switch to Stripe using the plugin and all free trials are being authorized correctly upon signup with no 3D Secure – but will then fail on first real payment of 39 DKK 30 days after because the bank requires 3D Secure on THAT transaction.

So to make it completely clear for me: If the free trial signup doesn’t require a 3D Secure you are completely sure that all future real payments and renewals on that particular subscription will NOT require 3D Secure either and will go through with no fail (if credit card is still active of course)?

Best,
Morten

Hi @mortenresen

Yes that is what I am saying. If 3-D secure is not required when the subscription is created, regardless of whether it’s a free trial or not, all future renewal payments will not require 3-D secure.

When processing a renewal payment the plug-in sets certain properties on the payment to let Stripe know it is a recurring payment. That along with Stripe’s internal checks ensure that 3-D secure is not required for the renewal payment.

All of this logic has been in place since this plug-in was created. There are many merchants using this plug-in in Europe (where 3D secure is required) along with subscriptions and they are running seamlessly.

Kind regards

Fantastic! Thanks!

So the new SCA support for free trials in the latest update, what is that part doing then?