A buyer who can't pay sees either one of our messages on your checkout page, or a card message on Stripe's secure payment form. This article explains both.
Card problems
The card details go into Stripe's secure payment form on your checkout page. Stripe handles declined cards, extra security checks from the buyer's bank (such as a code sent to their phone) and expired cards, and shows the buyer what went wrong. Zinstruct never sees the card.
- The buyer should try another card or payment method, or ask their bank why the payment was refused.
- A refused first payment creates no order in Revenue → Transactions, and nothing is charged. You get a Failed payment email naming the buyer and what they tried to buy, once per checkout, when Failed payment is on in Notifications & privacy. Subscription checkouts don't send it.
- If they don't come back and buy within the hour, we email them a reminder with a link back to the checkout. See Abandoned checkout emails.
Buyers can pay by card and with the wallets Stripe offers on their device. On one-time offers with Buy now, pay later turned on, they can also choose Afterpay or Klarna. See Pricing types, pay what you want and pricing options.
Messages on your checkout page
- "This creator isn't set up to accept payments yet. Please check back soon.": your Stripe account can't take payments. Open Settings → Payment setup: the status must be Active — ready to sell. See Connect Stripe to take payments.
- "We couldn't start checkout — payments aren't fully set up for this school yet. Please try again later.": Stripe refused to start the checkout. Check Payment setup first. If it's Active — ready to sell and the message keeps appearing, contact Zinstruct support.
- "This offer is not available.": the offer isn't published. Publish it.
- "This offer is sold out.", "This offer has closed." or "This offer isn't available any more.": the offer reached its buyer limit or end date, or its product was archived. See Checkout options, fields and availability.
- "That code is not valid.", "That code has expired." or "That code is not valid for this offer.": check the coupon's code, end date and which offers it applies to. See Discounts and discount codes.
- "That code can't be used right now. Please contact the seller.": the code isn't connected to Stripe, so it can't discount anything. Archive it and create a new code to replace it.
- "Too many checkout attempts. Please wait a few minutes and try again.": too many tries from one email address or network in a short time. Waiting a few minutes fixes it.
- "You already have an active subscription to this. You can change or cancel it from your profile.": they're already subscribed, so they don't need to pay again.
- "Please accept the agreement to continue.": the offer has a service agreement, and the buyer has to tick it.
- "Enter a valid email address.": the email address has a typo.
- "Please sign in with a verified email to get this free offer.": free offers need the buyer signed in, so the right person gets access.
A payment that fails later
A bank debit can fail days after checkout. Nothing is granted, and you get a Failed payment email. A failed subscription or payment-plan renewal works differently: Stripe retries it. See Failed subscription payments (dunning).