This article walks through the client's view of buying a recurring membership. It will help you understand what the client sees, which steps they have to take, and where they most often get stuck.
Who can buy a recurring membership, and where
A client always buys a recurring membership themselves. Unlike one-time memberships, you can't add it for them from the admin.
Why the client has to buy it themselves: A recurring membership requires the client's consent to the recurring payment and verification of the payer and card (3D Secure). European rules for online card payments demand this. The client has to be present in person with their own card. Nobody in the admin can enter or confirm the card on their behalf.
A client can buy a membership:
On the studio's public page, in the passes and memberships section.
Straight from a class's payment form, if the class has "Membership" as a price option — the client picks a variant and Zenamu sends them on to buy it.
From their own profile, if their membership has already expired or been cancelled.
What the client needs to have ready
A Zenamu account — if they don't have one yet, they create it during the purchase. The purchase can't be completed without an account and being logged in.
A payment card — Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Maestro, and other common international cards supported by Stripe. Apple Pay and Google Pay work too.
A way to pass 3D Secure verification — the client's bank may ask for an SMS code, a notification in the banking app, a fingerprint, or Face ID. The client needs access to their phone or their bank's app.
Important: A recurring membership can't be paid by bank transfer or in cash. This is a technical limit: only a payment card can charge automatically.
Step 1 — Pick a variant
The client picks a membership variant.
For each variant, they see:
The price, in a format like "€60 / month" — clearly marked as a recurring payment.
A note about auto-renewal and that it can be cancelled at any time.
Step 2 — Log in or sign up
If the client isn't logged in yet, they'll see a message below the variants on the studio's public page, with links to log in or sign up. The buy button doesn't appear until they're logged in.
Once they log in or sign up, they're taken back to the variant and can continue.
The reason: Zenamu needs to know whose membership it is so it can tie it to their profile. And because of the consent to the recurring payment, it has to be clear who is giving that consent.
Step 3 — Purchase summary
The client sees a form with the variant selection and an order summary:
The variant card with its name and price in the "€60 / month" format (if the group has several variants, they choose from switchable cards).
A note explaining that a recurring membership can only be paid by card.
A required checkbox with the consent to the recurring payment, worded "I agree to recurring payment of €60 every month." The client can't continue until they tick it.
The buy button, with a recurring icon. On a normal purchase, it shows the price and interval (e.g. "€60 / month"). If the first payment is prorated (billing day set to the 1st of the month), the button shows "Buy" with the specific prorated amount instead.
This summary doesn't show the next payment date. The client only sees the next renewal date after the purchase is complete, in their profile (in the membership detail). Clicking Buy doesn't charge anything yet: Zenamu just sets up the subscription and moves the client to the second step, where they actually enter the card.
Exception — when the first payment is €0: For a free variant (€0), clicking Buy activates the membership right away, with no card step (there's nothing to charge). With a 100% discount code, the first payment is also €0. There, the second step still runs and the card is saved for future (full) payments — nothing is charged right now. See Discount codes for more.
If your studio has discount codes turned on: The client sees a discount code field here. If the studio doesn't use discounts at all (set in Settings → Marketing and promo, section Discount codes), the field doesn't appear. A discount applies only to the first payment; from the second period onward, the full price is charged. See Discount codes and recurring memberships for more.
Step 4 — Enter the card (the second step of the purchase)
After the client clicks Buy, the second step opens right inside the purchase window: the Stripe payment form. Only here does the client enter their card details (number, expiry, CVC, name). If the client uses Apple Pay or Google Pay, Zenamu offers the matching button.
The card details go straight to Stripe over an encrypted connection, and the entire payment confirmation (including 3D Secure) happens in the client's browser. The card never passes through Zenamu's server, and Zenamu neither sees nor stores it. This is an important security detail you can mention to clients if they ask.
The client submits the payment with the Pay button. If they close the purchase window (with the X, the Esc key, or by clicking outside it) before they pay, Zenamu asks "Discard this purchase?" and adds "The membership payment hasn't gone through yet. If you leave now, you can finish the purchase later, or it will be cancelled automatically within about 24 hours." No charge is made at that point.
Step 5 — 3D Secure verification
After the client taps Pay, Stripe runs payer verification (3D Secure) right in the browser — a security step that European rules require for online card payments.
What the client might see:
The banking app — they approve the payment in their bank's app (typically a notification asking them to confirm with biometrics).
An SMS code — the bank sends a code that they type into the form.
A confirmation in the payment app — if the client has a payment app on the device itself.
If they don't finish verification right away: The membership stays in the Waiting for payment state, and in their profile the client sees a Complete payment button — Stripe keeps the payment open for up to 24 hours, so the client can come back and finish it without re-entering the card and without a second charge. In this situation Zenamu deliberately does not send the "Membership payment failed" email (that one is for a failed renewal of an already active membership, not for an unfinished first purchase).
Step 6 — Processing the payment
After the client taps Pay and 3D Secure succeeds, the payment is confirmed (all in the client's browser). The membership then stays briefly in the Waiting for payment state and only switches to Active once Stripe confirms it (usually within a few seconds).
The client sees one of 4 states:
State in the client's profile | What's happening | What the client should do |
Complete payment verification | The bank's 3D Secure window is open. | Go through the bank's verification, or tap Complete payment. |
Payment verification not completed | The client closed the verification. The payment is still open (up to 24 hours). | Tap Complete payment — the payment window reopens (on the same open payment, with no new subscription). |
Payment received (note: "Your recurring membership will activate in a few seconds…") | Stripe confirmed it; Zenamu is waiting for the success message. | Wait a few seconds — the status usually switches on its own. |
Activation taking longer than expected | Confirmation from Stripe is taking longer than usual. Rare. | Tap Check status again. |
Activation usually happens within 2–5 seconds. In rare cases it can take up to a minute. The client never pays twice: Stripe holds the payment on its side, and every new attempt applies to the same payment.
Step 7 — After activation
In their profile, the client then has:
The membership status ("Active", "Paused", "Pending cancellation", and others).
The next renewal date — when the next payment will be charged.
A "Cancel auto-renewal" button — they can cancel the membership themselves at any time, without having to contact the studio.
A "Switch plan" button — if your group has several variants, the client can switch from one to another (e.g. from "Standard" to "Premium").
The Orders section — every previous payment, with dates and status.
What the client receives by email
After each successful payment, the client gets an email with:
A payment confirmation (amount, date, billing period).
A link to the receipt or invoice (if you have document issuing turned on).
A link to their profile to manage the membership.
Before the next renewal, the client also gets a reminder email telling them how much will be charged and when. For memberships with a billing period longer than 14 days (monthly, yearly, and so on), this email usually arrives about 7 days ahead. For shorter periods (daily, weekly), don't rely on the reminder: it may not arrive, because there isn't enough time for the 7-day lead on such a short cycle.
This behaviour can't be changed or reconfigured anywhere in the app.
When a client can't buy a membership
"You already have a pending or active membership on this plan"
The client already has an active (or pending) membership in that group. Instead of letting them buy, the purchase form shows the warning "You already have a pending or active membership on this plan. Open the membership detail to manage it or finish the pending payment." and offers a link to their profile. If they want to move to a different variant, they use Switch plan in their profile (see Changing a membership variant).
Note: Internally, Zenamu logs this situation as the error "You already have a recurring membership with this provider.", but it never shows it to the client in that form — it always replaces it with the clear warning above, with a link to their profile.
The client gets a warning about an existing membership but really only has an unfinished purchase
The same warning also appears when the client has started a purchase but hasn't finished 3D Secure verification. The pending (unfinished) membership blocks them on their next attempt. The fix here is different from a genuinely active membership. The options:
Complete the payment — the client clicks the button in the membership detail; Stripe keeps the payment open for up to 24 hours, so they can finish it without losing the unfinished purchase (no new subscription is created).
Start a new purchase after 30 minutes — as soon as the client tries a new purchase, Zenamu automatically releases the previous unfinished attempt (one that's been pending for more than 30 minutes), and the purchase can go ahead.
If the block persists even after 30 minutes, you, as the studio, can cancel the client's unfinished subscription in the Stripe Dashboard (under Subscriptions on the client's profile), and the client can then start the purchase again.
"Your card was declined"
The client's bank refused to charge the payment. The specific message appears right in the payment form (the second step of the purchase). It's Stripe's text, translated into the client's language — not a separate error page or a pop-up notification. No charge is made at that point, and the client can enter a different card straight away. Possible reasons:
Not enough money in the account.
The card is blocked for online payments (the client has to allow them in the bank's app).
The card has 3D Secure turned off (the bank won't let it pass European regulation).
The card has a low per-transaction limit.
The client should contact their bank, or try a different card.
When a client loses their card or it expires
If the next payment can't be charged to the card, payment retries kick in and the client gets an email asking them to update the card (see When a payment fails).
The client can update the card themselves with the Manage payment method button in their profile. The button sends them to the Stripe customer portal, where they can swap the card without having to cancel their current membership.
The Stripe customer portal
After clicking Manage payment method in the membership detail, the client lands on a page hosted by Stripe (the Stripe customer portal). The features available in the portal depend on how the studio has configured it in the Stripe Dashboard (Settings → Customer portal). With Stripe's default setup, the portal usually offers:
Swapping the payment card — this is the most common use. The client enters a new card, goes through 3D Secure verification, and is charged from the new card from the next renewal.
Cancelling the membership — if the studio has this feature turned on in the portal. Some studios turn it off so cancellation can only go through Zenamu.
Watch out: If a client contacts the studio saying they've "already cancelled through the Stripe portal" and the status in Zenamu hasn't caught up yet, wait a minute and refresh the page. If the status still doesn't match after a few minutes, open the client's profile in the Stripe Dashboard and check the current state of the subscription. You can end it right from the Stripe Dashboard, and Zenamu will catch up within a minute.
3D Secure verification on automatic renewals too
Some EU banks require payer verification on some automatic renewals too (not just on the first purchase). This follows from the European rules for online payments and is outside the control of both Zenamu and Stripe: it depends on the client's specific bank and card type.
When Stripe hits a 3D Secure requirement during an automatic renewal:
The payment is temporarily held and waits for the client to act. The membership status in Zenamu stays Active. Zenamu does not switch to Waiting for payment in this situation (that state is reserved for an unfinished first purchase).
The client gets a special email, "Action required — verify your membership payment," with a link to a page hosted by Stripe where they complete the verification (SMS, an app notification, or biometrics).
If the verification passes, the renewal continues as normal, the invoice is paid, and the client gets the standard confirmation.
If the client doesn't finish the verification (Stripe holds the state for up to 24 hours), Stripe treats it as a failed attempt and only then starts the standard grace period + payment retries. From that point, the membership moves to the Unpaid state.
In the admin, you'll see a note in the client's activity that the renewal requires client verification.
Frequently asked questions
What if the client has no card at all? Then they can't buy a recurring membership. Offer them a one-time membership instead: it's fixed-term, the client extends it manually, and they can pay any way they like (card, transfer, cash).
The client has a credit balance — what does that mean? A credit balance only comes up in rare cases: for example, after a refund issued as credit instead of to the card, or when the client switches between variants with different period lengths (e.g. from monthly to yearly). For a normal price increase or decrease on a variant (same interval, just a different price), no credit arises. If the client sees a credit, it's applied automatically to the next payment.
Does a recurring membership work for bookings the same as a regular membership? Yes. The client books with it exactly the same as with any other membership. How many classes they can attend and how many bookings they can have at once are set by the limits the studio configured on the membership (or the membership is unlimited).
Can a client have several recurring memberships at once? Yes, as long as they're in different membership groups (e.g. "Monthly yoga" and "Monthly pilates"). Within a single group, a client can have only one active membership. They can buy a new one once the current one is cancelled or runs out.
Is VAT included, and does the client get a tax document? If the studio is VAT-registered, the membership price includes VAT. For every successful payment (the first purchase and each renewal), the client gets a receipt or invoice (if the studio has document issuing turned on). They'll find them with the relevant payment in the Orders section of their profile.
Is it safe to enter a card? Yes. Card details go encrypted straight to Stripe (a certified payment gateway). Zenamu never sees or stores the card. Stripe handles both charging and 3D Secure verification.
Can a client change the day they're charged? Not directly. The billing day is set by the studio (the purchase date, or the 1st of the month). If the client wants a different day, the simplest path is to cancel the membership at the end of the period and buy again; the new day then follows from the date of the new purchase. See Billing day.
A client tells me the purchase form for a recurring membership didn't show up, and they only see an info box saying the studio doesn't accept cards. You've probably temporarily turned off card payments in Settings → Payments (section Payment methods) — for example, during an ongoing Stripe account switch. Because a recurring membership depends on a card (no other payment method can charge automatically), Zenamu deliberately blocks the new purchase and shows an info box instead of the purchase form. Once cards are turned back on, the client can complete the purchase.
For fixed-term memberships, the behaviour is different: the card simply disappears from the list of payment methods and the client picks another way to pay (transfer, cash, credit, a pass…). No info box is shown.
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