Subscription & Recurring Billing

Recurring agreement registration

When a subscription is created, Absterco registers a recurring agreement with Mastercard on the organisation's behalf using the acquirer Agreement API. This agreement gives Mastercard and the issuing bank visibility that future charges are pre-authorised recurring payments, not surprise transactions.

The agreement specifies a maximum billing amount per cycle. This maximum is set to the grossed-up charged amount plus a 20% buffer (configurable in settings) to account for FX rate movements between billing cycles.

If a recurring charge would exceed the registered agreement maximum, Mastercard rejects it. Organisations should notify Absterco if they anticipate a significant price increase so the agreement can be updated.

Failed billing and retry behaviour

If a recurring billing attempt fails (insufficient funds, card expired, etc.), the system records the failure and increments the consecutive failure count on the subscription.

Retries are not automatic. The organisation is responsible for deciding how to handle failed billings — they can trigger a retry via the API, update the customer's payment method, or cancel the subscription.

Organisations should not retry DECLINED_DO_NOT_CONTACT results — the issuer has explicitly requested no further attempts on that card.

Cancellation

When a subscription is cancelled, Absterco cancels the Mastercard recurring agreement. No further recurring charges can be made against that agreement ID.

Cancellation does not trigger a refund of any previously billed amounts. Refunds must be requested separately.