Subscription payments on a direct gateway — card-on-file, MIT exemptions, debit-order mandates.
BazPay's payment gateway for subscription services runs the payment side of your renewal book. Network-tokenised card credentials survive issuer reissues, MIT exemptions keep rebills frictionless, BACS Direct Debit covers higher-ticket enterprise plans, and every event fires through one signed webhook stream.
Built for regional subscription merchants — SaaS platforms, membership sites, digital publishers and professional-services firms. Direct regional acquiring, interchange++ reporting and one dashboard for both card and bank-rail renewals.
Why subscription merchants pick a purpose-tuned payment gateway
A subscription book lives or dies on renewal reliability. Four properties keep recurring charges alive without leaning on customer intervention every time an issuer reissues a card.
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Renewals that survive card reissues
Stored credentials sit inside our gateway-side vault as Visa or Mastercard network tokens. When the issuer reissues the card, the token refreshes automatically — subscription renewals keep working without asking the customer to update anything.
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MIT exemptions keep rebills frictionless
Open-finance regulation permits merchant-initiated exemptions on qualifying recurring charges under a stored mandate. BazPay claims MIT (and other) exemptions automatically, so most rebills complete without a 3-D Secure prompt to the customer.
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Card + BACS Direct Debit under one subscription
Enterprise plans that prefer BACS Direct Debit and self-serve plans that renew on card share the same subscription reference. Dunning and reporting stay consistent regardless of which rail paid the last cycle.
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Dunning-aware retries on recoverable declines
Soft declines fire signed webhooks with the reason code. Retry cadence and dunning windows are self-service in the dashboard so your billing service reacts without redeploying every time a rule changes.
The rails that carry subscription payments
Four rail families cover the payment side of a subscription — network-tokenised card renewals, BACS Direct Debit mandates, wallet-based sign-ups and the dunning layer that catches recoverable declines.
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Card-on-file
Network-tokenised card renewals
Card credentials are replaced with Visa and Mastercard network tokens on first storage. Subsequent renewals charge the token, not the PAN — the token refreshes through the scheme token service after a card reissue.
- Network tokens
- MIT exemptions
- 3DS 2 on step-up
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BACS Direct Debit
SEPA Instant DD for higher-ticket plans
BACS Direct Debit mandates are stored gateway-side and portable between rails. Enterprise plans, invoices and higher-ticket B2B subscriptions commonly renew on SEPA Instant DD rather than card.
- Stored mandates
- Portable
- Bank-authenticated
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Wallets
Wallet-based first charges
Apple Pay and Google Pay handle the initial sign-up charge on device wallets; the resulting network-tokenised card credential is stored for subsequent renewals under the same subscription.
- Apple Pay
- Google Pay
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Dunning
Dunning-aware retry logic
Soft declines trigger retries on a schedule you set; hard declines route to the customer with the right prompt. Both fire signed webhooks so your billing service reacts inside the same handler.
- Retry schedule
- Signed webhooks
- Reason codes
The recurring product itself — plans, proration, trials, dunning windows — lives on recurring billing. BACS Direct Debit depth on SEPA and SEPA Instant.
Payment side of a subscription, cycle by cycle
Six stages describe the payment lifecycle from sign-up to reconciled renewal. Each stage is visible in the dashboard and each stage change fires a signed webhook.
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Sign-up charge
The customer subscribes and pays the first charge — card, wallet or BACS Direct Debit. Hosted fields or the hosted checkout keep card data out of your stack.
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Store credential
The card credential becomes a network token in the gateway vault, or the SEPA Instant DD mandate is stored — both keyed to your merchant and portable if you migrate.
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Schedule renewal
The subscription reference is attached to the charge. Renewal cadence, retry policy and dunning windows live in the dashboard and apply from the next cycle.
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Renew with MIT
On the due date the platform charges the stored credential. MIT exemptions run automatically where PSD2 allows; otherwise the charge steps up to 3-D Secure 2.
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Recover declines
Soft declines retry on the schedule you set; hard declines fire a signed webhook to trigger customer outreach — the reason code drives which path.
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Reconcile
Renewals, refunds and disputes settle into your local settlement account with interchange++ line detail keyed by subscription and cycle.
Purpose-tuned subscription payment vs generic card gateway
A generic card gateway can charge a stored PAN and call it a subscription. A tuned subscription payment system does more — the comparison below shows where the delta lives once your renewal book is a going concern.
| Dimension | BazPay (subscription-tuned) | Generic card gateway |
|---|---|---|
| Renewals | Network tokens + MIT exemptions | PAN-based, reissue churn |
| Rails | Card-on-file + SEPA Instant DD under one subscription | Card-only or DD-only silo |
| Dunning | Reason-code retries, dashboard-configurable | Fixed schedule per vendor |
| Event stream | Signed webhooks, one signature scheme | Per-vendor formats |
| Reporting | Interchange++ per settled renewal | Blended monthly summary |
| Migration | Vault + mandate import under scheme rules | Rebuild from customer opt-in |
Rate structure on the pricing page. Fraud posture on payment fraud prevention. Secure-services layer on secure payment services.
Features engineered into payment gateway subscription services
Every capability below ships on the standard integration. No premium tier gates network tokens, MIT exemptions or the signed webhook contract.
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Gateway vault + network tokens
Store credentials once for card-on-file. Network tokens refresh automatically after issuer reissue, so renewals do not silently churn.
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MIT exemptions
Merchant-initiated exemptions on qualifying recurring charges under a stored mandate; frictionless rebills where PSD2 permits.
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3-D Secure 2.2 on sign-up
Step-up authentication on the initial charge where the risk earns it; the successful 3DS result binds to the credential for future dispute defence.
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BACS Direct Debit mandates
Gateway-side mandate storage for enterprise plans, higher-ticket B2B invoicing and any subscription paid from a bank account rather than a card.
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Dunning-aware retries
Reason-code-aware retry schedules; hard-decline webhooks trigger customer outreach through your existing email or in-app channel.
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Signed webhooks
HMAC-signed, replay-protected events on every state change — invoice paid, invoice failed, subscription updated, dispute opened — one signature scheme.
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Interchange++ reporting
Every settled renewal breaks out interchange, scheme fees and gateway margin, keyed by subscription reference and cycle.
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Portable vault + mandate
Stored credentials and debit-order mandates can be imported from an incumbent processor under a scheme-approved migration, subject to the receiving bank's consent letters.
A subscription-referenced charge in one REST call
Attach a subscription reference to the charge, pass the stored payment method and the platform applies MIT exemptions where PSD2 allows. Idempotency headers make retries safe — a network blip never becomes a double charge on a renewal cycle.
POST /v1/charges
Idempotency-Key: 8f1c-2b3a-9e4d
{
"amount": 4900,
"currency": "EUR",
"customer": "cus_5F9k",
"payment_method": "card",
"subscription": "sub_2H9F",
"off_session": true,
"capture": "auto"
}
The off_session: true flag signals a merchant-initiated charge; the
platform applies MIT exemptions where PSD2 allows. Full schema in the
API reference.
Merchants who pay for subscription infrastructure on BazPay
Four subscription merchant profiles rely on BazPay's payment layer to keep their renewal books intact. Each uses the same charge object and signed webhook stream.
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SaaS platforms
Monthly and annual plans with card-on-file renewals, MIT exemptions, dunning-aware retries and clean per-plan reporting into your product analytics.
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Membership and paywall sites
Digital publishers running renewal-heavy subscription books where a card reissue must not churn a paying reader silently.
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B2B software with enterprise DD
Higher-ticket enterprise plans that renew on BACS Direct Debit with a stored mandate, alongside self-serve tiers on card-on-file.
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Professional services retainers
Consultancies and agencies invoicing recurring retainers where the customer's finance team prefers SEPA Instant DD or hosted-page card renewal.
Out of scope for BazPay: adult, gambling, CBD, nutraceutical, forex, CFD, crypto-exchange, debt-collection and MLM. BazPay is not a merchant of record and does not act as a marketplace of third-party PSPs.
Security and compliance for subscription renewals
Card handling runs inside a PCI DSS Level 1 environment assessed each year. Hosted fields keep your annual return at merchant SAQ A. Authentication runs on every card charge with 3-D Secure 2.2 and automatic exemption logic — MIT exemptions on qualifying renewals under a stored mandate keep rebills frictionless without lowering the security floor.
- PCI DSS Level 1
- Annual assessment on the acquiring and gateway environment
- Merchant SAQ A
- Hosted fields and gateway vault keep card data out of your stack
- Authentication
- 3-D Secure 2.2 with automatic exemption logic on every card charge
- GDPR
- In-region data residency; DPA on request
- SEPA and BACS rulebooks
- Adherence to the SEPA, Faster Payments and BACS scheme rulebooks
Questions merchants ask about subscription payments
What does BazPay's payment gateway for subscription actually cover?
The payment side of a subscription — collecting the first charge, storing the credential securely, charging it on the renewal cadence with MIT exemptions where PSD2 allows, handling soft-decline retries, and settling into your local settlement account with interchange++ reporting. The billing product itself — plans, proration, trial windows — is covered on the recurring billing page.
How do payment and subscription flows survive a card reissue?
Stored card credentials sit inside the gateway vault as Visa or Mastercard network tokens. When the issuer reissues a card, the token refreshes automatically through the scheme token service — the next renewal charge uses the refreshed token without asking the customer to enter anything.
How do subscription payments handle strong customer authentication?
The initial sign-up charge runs 3-D Secure 2.2 when the risk earns it and captures the CAVV as evidence for future dispute defence. Subsequent renewals under the stored mandate can claim the merchant-initiated (MIT) exemption where PSD2 allows, so most rebills complete without a customer prompt.
Can we mix card-on-file and BACS Direct Debit under one subscription payment system?
Yes. Enterprise plans commonly renew on BACS Direct Debit with a stored mandate; self-serve tiers renew on card-on-file with MIT exemptions. Both attach to the same subscription reference so your reporting tracks retention per subscription rather than per rail.
What does subscription processing look like when a renewal fails?
A soft decline (insufficient funds, temporary block) triggers retries on the schedule you configure in the dashboard. A hard decline (do not honour, expired card without a token refresh available) fires a signed webhook so your customer-notification pipeline reaches the payer with the right prompt. Every step is logged in real-time analytics.
Does the subscription gateway support one-off charges too?
Yes. The same charge object handles subscription renewals, one-off charges, add-on purchases and mid-cycle plan changes with proration. Your billing service issues a charge with or without a subscription reference — the platform routes accordingly.
How does migration from another payment gateway subscription service work?
Vault imports for card credentials and debit-order mandate handovers are supported under scheme-approved migration processes, subject to the receiving bank's consent letters. Old and new webhook streams typically run in parallel during cutover so a renewal cycle does not fall through a crack.
Which merchants can pay for subscription infrastructure through BazPay?
Merchants across the EU, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand: SaaS platforms, membership and paywall sites, digital publishers, professional-services firms invoicing retainers, and B2B software with enterprise SEPA Instant DD subscribers. BazPay does not board adult, gambling, CBD, nutraceutical, forex, CFD, crypto-exchange, debt-collection or MLM merchants, and does not act as a merchant of record.
Move your renewal book to a subscription-tuned payment gateway
Share your subscription model, monthly volume and current stack. A named engineer will confirm boarding fit and map the vault-and-mandate migration inside one working day. See also recurring billing, pricing and secure payment services.