The two meanings of rebilling
In subscription commerce, a rebill is each charge after the first: the initial sale is followed by rebills for as long as the customer stays. Merchants track the rebill rate, the share of customers successfully charged again, cycle by cycle.
In payment operations, to rebill is to submit a failed or reversed charge again, for example after a decline or after an invoice was corrected.
How a rebill is processed
The gateway keeps a token from the first payment in place of the card number. For each rebill, the merchant's system sends the token, the amount and a reference to the original transaction, and the gateway marks the request as initiated by the merchant on a stored credential.
The issuer sees that marking and the link to the first payment, which the cardholder made in person or online. A rebill sent without them looks like a new purchase with no cardholder present.
Why rebilling matters
Rebills are where subscription disputes come from: a customer who forgot the subscription, or thought it was cancelled, does not recognise the charge. A clear billing descriptor, a notice before the charge and a cancellation that stops rebills at once reduce them.
Rebilling, recurring billing or retry?
- Recurring billing
- The whole model: schedule, pricing and rules. A rebill is one charge that the model produces.
- Payment retry
- A further attempt at one failed charge. In the second meaning of rebilling, the two are the same thing.
Where Rebilling shows up in a platform
Modules that do the work
- CheckoutA hosted checkout for cards, wallets, bank payments and crypto, routed to the best provider.
- Card acquiringCard acceptance on the phone, in store and online, through the acquirer you choose.
- NotificationsEmail, SMS, push and in-app messages in your brand, through the providers you choose.