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Failed Payments

Managed WordPress Hosting plans

Managed WordPress Hosting plans are pre-paid, and your monthly hosting subscription renews each month. Your card will be charged for the amount of your Managed WordPress Hosting plan and any overage charges or add-ons each month on the same date you signed up for service. For example, if you signed up on March 4th, you would be charged immediately for your first month, and then on April 4th, you will be billed for your second month.

Application and Database Hosting plans

Application Hosting and Database Hosting plans are post-paid. Your card will be charged at the end of your first monthly billing cycle. At the end of your first month, you’ll be billed for the resources your application or database used. For example, if you signed up on October 26th, you will be billed on November 26th for applications and databases added during that cycle.

Unpaid invoice notice

If there’s an issue with payment and you have an unpaid invoice, when you log in to MyKinsta you’ll receive a notification with the invoice details and options to add a new card or pay the invoice.

Unpaid invoice notice in MyKinsta with details and options to pay.
Unpaid invoice notice in MyKinsta with details and options to pay.

Payment methods

You can add more than one credit card to your account and update any card to be your default card. If we are unable to charge your primary card for some reason, we will attempt to charge the additional card(s) on your account.

We exclusively use Stripe as our credit card processor; we don’t accept PayPal payments. However, for Managed WordPress annual plans, we do accept wire transfers.

The first payment attempt

As explained, our billing system automatically charges your default card on the same day every month. If we are unable to charge the default card, we will attempt to charge any additional card(s) on your account. Payments may fail due to insufficient funds or cards having been reported lost or expired. The most common reason a payment fails is when a bank simply declines the transaction. If this happens, you will need to contact your bank and ask them to allow Kinsta Inc. to process the payment.

After the first failed payment attempt, we will send an email to the email address you use to log in to MyKinsta, asking you to work with your bank to ensure payment can be processed successfully. This email is sent to you from the address [email protected] so please make sure you treat it as a high priority and make sure it’s not delivered to your promotions tab or spam folder.

If you have an outstanding invoice and wish to retry payment without waiting for our billing system to retry automatically, you can do so by logging in to MyKinsta, going to your username > Company > Invoices, and clicking on the Pay button next to the failed invoice.

Pay an unpaid invoice in MyKinsta.
Pay an unpaid invoice in MyKinsta.

If payment is successful, you will be able to download a PDF of your paid invoice within a few seconds.

The second payment attempt

Three days after the first payment attempt fails, our billing system automatically tries to process the payment again. If payment is successful, there’s nothing further to do. If payment fails for a second time, you will receive a second email letting you know that you have an outstanding invoice that needs to be paid.

The third payment attempt

Eight days after the first failed payment attempt, our billing system automatically tries to process the payment again. If payment is successful, there’s nothing further to do.

If payment fails for a third time, you will receive a third email letting you know that you have an outstanding invoice that needs to be paid. Our billing system will suspend all plans and services automatically, stopping all traffic and processes.

The fourth and final payment attempt

Fifteen days after the first failed payment attempt, our billing system automatically tries to process the payment one final time. If we are unable to charge your primary card for some reason, we may attempt payment with any additional card(s) on file to bring the account current. If payment is successful, there’s nothing further that you need to do.

However, if this fourth payment attempt fails, our billing system will cancel your plans and services automatically. In short, once an invoice has been unpaid for 15 days, the associated plans and services will be canceled. Following cancellation, all data hosted on our platform will be deleted soon after.

After the fourth failed payment attempt and subsequent subscription cancellation, all of your sites (including both live and staging environments), applications, or databases associated with the canceled plan will be automatically and permanently deleted. In addition, all DNS entries in MyKinsta will also be automatically and permanently deleted.

If you have any issues with your payment, please don’t hesitate to contact us during this 15-day grace period by opening a ticket with our Billing team.

Important notes about suspension and termination of plans and services

  • We will suspend or terminate all plans and services (including those that are current) if they are associated with an unpaid plan or service under the same account.
  • When plans and services are suspended, all traffic and processes stop. Visitors that attempt to load your site or application will be unable to do so.
    • For applications, this also means you cannot deploy or redeploy your application.
    • For databases, this also means you cannot connect to and retrieve data from the database.
  • Upon termination at day 15, backups of WordPress sites are retained for 14 additional days. These backups can be restored but are not available for download. After 14 days, the backups are permanently deleted.
  • If plans and services are terminated, all data will be permanently deleted. This means all of your sites (including both live and staging environments), applications, or databases associated with the canceled plan will be automatically and permanently deleted. In addition, all DNS entries in MyKinsta will also be automatically and permanently deleted.

A note about annual Managed WordPress Hosting plans

Most of our clients opt for monthly plans, and the description of our billing process above is written to apply to the process that plays out for clients subscribed to a monthly hosting plan. If you opt for an annual plan, there are some slight differences:

  • Payment for your hosting plan will be charged on the date of signup and then once per year on the anniversary date. For example, if you sign up on March 4th, you’ll pay for a full year of hosting, and your next plan renewal will occur the following March 4th.
  • Payment for overages and add-ons is processed every month. For example, if you signed up for an annual plan on March 4th and then opted for some monthly add-ons and incurred an overage, the overages, and the add-ons will be charged to the card on file on April 4th. Failed payments for overages or add-ons can result in suspension or termination of an account, even if the annual plan is current.
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