Adjust or Disable the Recurring Payment Reminder Email

In PMPro v3.2, we merged the functionality of the premium Recurring Payment Email Reminders Add On into the core free plugin. In this post, we share a few ways to customize the recurring payment reminder email to better fit your membership model.

Reminding members that their renewal payment is processing soon isn’t just excellent business ethics—it can also be a legal requirement in some countries. Plus, it helps you, as the business owner, avoid unnecessary refunds and, worse yet, chargebacks and disputes.

We recognize that certain membership sites may want to have more control over these reminders. You may want to:

• Adjust the reminder interval to accommodate shorter-term memberships.
• Disable reminders for specific membership levels.
• Send customized email templates at different stages of the renewal period.
• Only send reminders for annual or biannual subscription periods.

This code recipe demonstrates how to use the pmpro_upcoming_recurring_payment_reminder and pmpro_send_recurring_payment_reminder_email filters for more granular control over renewal reminder emails.

Understanding the pmpro_upcoming_recurring_payment_reminder Filter

The pmpro_upcoming_recurring_payment_reminder filter allows you to control how many days prior to a recurring payment due date an email reminder is sent, and which email template is used.

By default, PMPro automatically sends a notification to the member 7 days prior to their next subscription payment date. However, you can adjust this timeframe or even add multiple notifications via this filter.

The filter takes an array ($emails) that defines how many days prior to the recurring payment a reminder should be sent and which email template to use. The default email template is 'membership_recurring'.

You can customize the content of this email on the Memberships > Settings > Email Templates in the WordPress admin.

Why Send Recurring Payment Reminders

Recurring payment reminders are a great customer communication tool for subscription-based businesses:

• Compliance: Some jurisdictions require that businesses notify subscribers ahead of a renewal. Here is some information on Automatic-Renewal laws in the United States, for example.
• Reduce Refunds: When an unexpected charge hits your member’s credit card, they may reach out and ask for a refund. This email reduces the impact of these refunds on your finances, especially considering that the payment gateway keeps the fee portion of your charge, even if you have to process a refund.
• Reduce Chargebacks: By reminding members ahead of time, you reduce the likelihood of chargebacks or disputes that occur when members forget about an upcoming payment.
• Increase Retention: Gentle reminders about upcoming renewals provide an opportunity for customers to reengage with your membership, update their payment method, or even upgrade their plans.

Code Recipe #1: Customize the Recurring Payment Reminder Email Interval

This code recipe shows how to use the pmpro_upcoming_recurring_payment_reminder filter to adjust the default email interval or add additional reminders.

With this code, PMPro will send the 'membership_recurring' email at 30 days and 3 days before the recurring payment due date.

Note: the default 7 days reminder will not be sent if you use this filter to set an alternate schedule. If you want to keep the 7 days reminder in place, it must be a part of the $emails array in your custom code.

Code Recipe #2: Only Send Recurring Reminders for Long Payment Periods

In some cases, you might only want to send reminders if a member’s last successful payment was more than 6 months ago. This can help you avoid over-communicating with subscribers who are actively engaged and keep reminder emails focused on longer-term members who might need a little nudge.

The following recipe uses the pmpro_send_recurring_payment_reminder_email filter to achieve this. It checks the date of the most recent successful payment and only sends the email if it’s been more than 6 months since the last payment.

Note: This example checks the subscription based on time. You could also use this filter hook to disable the recurring reminder email based on the level ID of the subscription.

Adding the Recipe to Your Website

You can add this recipe to your site by creating a custom plugin or using the Code Snippets plugin available for free in the WordPress repository. Read this companion article for step-by-step directions on either method.

Get Support For More Customizations

The filters included in this code recipe post allow you to customize renewal reminder emails in many, many ways. We have only shown you two basic examples of how to leverage a custom code snippet to build the exact renewal email process that fits your membership model.

Whether you want to set reminders for shorter intervals, or only target inactive members, these code examples are fully customizable. Please reach out to our support team for help extending on these examples for your needs.