How-to › Selling special products
How to Let Subscribers Update Their Card
Give subscribers one page for the cards their subscriptions bill: add a card for the subscriptions they choose, pick a default and remove old cards, before a renewal fails. 10 parts.
Quick links
Where to find it:Your store › Account page › Payment methods
Before you start
What you are building
What subscribers can do with their cards and what you need.
How Payment methods works
What you need and what subscribers get
What you need. WP EasyCart PRO or Premium selling subscriptions through Stripe (or Stripe Connect), and one switch in Settings › Accounts. See How to Sell Subscriptions on WordPress first.
What subscribers get. A Payment methods page in My Account with every card they keep with you and the subscriptions each one pays for. They can add a card and choose which subscriptions it pays for, move subscriptions to a card already on file, pick their default card, and remove a card nothing uses or one that expired. Expired cards, cards that expire this month or next, and failed payments are marked, so a subscriber sees the problem before a renewal fails.
Why it matters. An expired card is the usual reason a renewal fails. When subscribers can fix it themselves, you keep the subscription without an email back and forth.
Where the cards live. Stripe keeps the cards; your store never holds a card number. The page asks Stripe each time it opens, and each subscription’s own page in My Account shows the same card.
The steps: turn the page on, know what subscribers see, then how they add, move and remove cards, and test it.
💡 Note: Subscribers manage plans, quantities and cancellations on Manage subscriptions. Payment methods is only about the cards.
Set it up
Six steps
Turn the page on, then what subscribers see, add, move and remove, and a test.
Step 1. Turn on the page
Settings › Accounts › Account page
Open EasyCart › Settings › Accounts and, in the Account page card, turn on Let shoppers manage their subscriptions and payment methods. The same switch adds Manage subscriptions to the account menu.
Who sees it. A customer sees Payment methods in the account menu, under Manage subscriptions, once they have a Stripe subscription with your store, in any status. A customer whose subscriptions all ended keeps it, so they can still remove the cards left on file. Customers without a subscription, and old PayPal subscriptions, never see it.
Step 2. Know what subscribers see
One card per row, with what it pays for
The page opens with The cards your subscriptions are billed to. Each card shows its brand, the last four digits and the expiry date, with badges for Default, Expires soon and Expired.
Under each card, Pays for lists the subscriptions it bills, each linking to its own page, with Payment failed beside one whose last payment did not go through. The default card with nothing of its own says Pays for any subscription without a card of its own. Any other card nothing uses says Not used by a subscription.
Warnings. A banner above the cards, with an Add a card button, says when a subscription needs attention: A card your subscriptions use has expired. Add a new card to keep them going., or that a card expires soon, or that A subscription payment did not go through. A customer with no cards sees You have no saved cards.
Step 3. Add a card
Add a card, then choose what it pays for
Add a card opens a short form: Card details in Stripe’s own card field, then Use this card for with each subscription the customer can change, its price and next bill date, and the card it uses now. Subscriptions that need a new card (an expired card, one that expires soon, a failed payment or no card) are ticked already.
Once the customer has a card on file there is also Make this my default card. When your store asks shoppers to agree to your terms at checkout, the form asks too. Save card saves it in Stripe and moves the chosen subscriptions to it: Your card was added. or Your card was saved and 2 subscriptions now use it.
A subscription can take a new card while it is active, in a trial, past due or paused.
Step 4. Move subscriptions or pick the default
Use for subscriptions and Make default
Use for subscriptions on a card that has not expired lists the other subscriptions it could pay for: Choose the subscriptions this card pays for. The customer ticks them and presses Use this card. The page answers Your subscriptions now use this card.
Make default makes a card the default, which pays for any subscription without a card of its own: This card is now your default. An expired card cannot be made the default or take on subscriptions.
Step 5. Remove a card
Unused or expired cards only
Remove shows on a card nothing uses and on a card that expired. It asks Remove Visa •••• 4242? and Remove card takes it out of Stripe: The card was removed.
An expired card still in use. The form adds Move its subscriptions to with the customer’s other cards, so nothing is left without a card. With no other valid card it says Add a new card for the subscriptions this card pays for, then remove it. and offers Add a card with those subscriptions ticked.
A card that has not expired and still pays for a subscription has no Remove. The customer moves its subscriptions to another card first, with Use for subscriptions on that card.
⚠️ Careful: Removing a card deletes it from the customer in Stripe. It cannot be undone; the customer adds it again as a new card.
Step 6. Test it
Stripe test mode and a test subscriber
With Stripe in test mode, in a private window:
1. Sign up for a subscription with Stripe’s test card 4242 4242 4242 4242, any future date and any code.
2. Open My Account. Payment methods should be in the menu under Manage subscriptions, with the card marked Default and the subscription under Pays for.
3. Press Add a card, enter 5555 5555 5555 4444, keep the subscription ticked and press Save card. The subscription should move to the new card.
4. The first card now says Not used by a subscription. Remove it.
5. In your Stripe dashboard, the customer should show the one card left.
Good to know
Related places and fixes
A subscription’s own card, Elementor account pages and the usual problems.
A subscription’s own card
The same cards, one subscription at a time
Each subscription’s page in My Account still shows the card it bills and takes a new one. A customer with other subscriptions chooses Use this card for: This subscription only, This subscription and others I choose or All my subscriptions. Both places read the same cards from Stripe, so a change in one shows in the other. See What Customers See in My Account.
Account pages built with Elementor
The Payment Methods widget
On an account page built with Elementor, the Payment Methods widget, and the Payment methods view of the My Account widget, draw this same list, with every button above. They show only on a store that bills subscriptions through Stripe. See Elementor: Design the Account Area.
If it does not work
The usual reasons
No Payment methods item. Let shoppers manage their subscriptions and payment methods is off, your card gateway is not Stripe or Stripe Connect, or the customer has no Stripe subscription with your store.
We could not reach the payment service, so these are the cards your subscriptions last used. Stripe did not answer. The page lists the cards your store last recorded and hides the buttons. Check your Stripe connection in Settings › Payment and try again in a few minutes.
Your session has ended. Please reload the page and try again. The page sat open too long. Reload it.
A new card is refused. Adding a card goes through the same Checkout protection checks as your other card forms, and Stripe may ask the customer to confirm the card with their bank. Check Settings › Checkout protection if honest customers are blocked.
A subscription is missing from Use this card for. Only subscriptions that are active, in a trial, past due or paused can take a new card. Ended ones cannot.
Keep going
Related panels
The account switch that adds Payment methods.
Your subscriptions, their status and their card, in Orders › Subscriptions.
What Customers See in My Account
Everything else customers see in My Account.
Connecting Stripe.
The checks a new card goes through.
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