Failed Payments and Read-Only Accounts

When a payment fails

If a charge fails, Polar retries it and the account becomes past due. A banner across the console says so, with the date serving will stop:

"Your last payment failed. Experiments and surveys stop serving on (date) unless the card is updated."

Owners and Admins can fix it with Manage billing on the banner, which opens Polar's portal to update the card. Members see a message asking them to contact an account Owner or Admin.

The 7-day grace period

Experiments and surveys keep serving for 7 days after the payment fails. If the payment still has not gone through by then, serving stops and the account becomes read-only. Your visitors see your site as it is, without any variants.

What a read-only account can still do

Nothing is deleted. In a read-only account you can still:

• view and export your data, including every experiment and its results
• sign in, and manage passwords and passkeys
• manage your team and invitations
• edit notification settings and your company profile
• use the billing page

What you cannot do is make changes to experiments, surveys or websites. An attempt shows the message "Your account is read-only because it has no active plan. Choose a plan in Settings, Billing to make changes." The header shows No active plan, and nothing is served to the account's websites.

Restoring the account

Choose a plan in Settings then Billing, or update the card if the subscription is still past due. Serving resumes once the plan is active.

How long a read-only account is kept

A read-only account has no fixed end date. Pertento may close it after 30 days' notice. A payment dispute raised with your bank is treated the same way as a failed payment.

Agencies

If an agency's own fee goes unpaid, serving stops for the agency's own account and for any client account included in the fee. A client account on its own paid plan keeps serving. See Billing for Agencies: the Agency Fee and Client Plans.