Can retry policies differ from one merchant to another?

Yes. Program managers can publish retry policies as templates that merchants duplicate and adapt within the rights the operator grants. Each policy sets the number of attempts, the delay between them and what happens after the last one: past due, a pause for a set number of cycles, or cancellation.

Templates and adaptations

A retry policy defines what happens when a rebill fails: how many attempts, how long between them, which decline codes allow a retry, and what happens after the last attempt. Program managers publish policies as templates. Merchants duplicate and adapt them within the rights the operator grants, or use them as they are.

What a policy contains

• Number of attempts and the delay between each, for example three attempts over seven days.
• Decline codes that stop retries at once, such as a lost or stolen card.
• Retries that ask for strong customer authentication when the issuer requests it.
• The outcome after the last attempt: past due, a pause for a set number of cycles, or cancellation.

Why merchants differ

A gym and a software vendor do not treat a failed payment the same way. One pauses access and retries on payday; the other keeps the service and retries daily. Letting policies differ per merchant, within limits, keeps approval rates healthy and avoids the retry storms that issuers penalize. The operator sees the effect in reporting: recovery rate per policy, per merchant, per decline code.