Set up a subscription with pre-authorized debit in Canada

Learn how to create and charge for a subscription with Canadian pre-authorized debits.

Subscriptions support in Checkout is not yet supported. If you’d like to learn about early access when this feature is available, please contact us to join our waitlist.

Create a product and price
Dashboard

Products represent the item or service you’re selling. Prices define how much and how frequently you charge for a product. This includes how much the product costs, what currency you accept, and whether it’s a one-time or recurring charge. If you only have a few products and prices, create and manage them in the Dashboard.

This guide uses a stock photo service as an example and charges customers a 15 CAD monthly subscription. To model this:

Navigate to the Add a product page.
Enter a Name for the product.
Enter 15 for the price.
Select CAD as the currency.
Click Save product.

After you create the product and the price, record the price ID so you can use it in subsequent steps. The pricing page displays the ID and it looks similar to this: price_G0FvDp6vZvdwRZ.

Create the subscription
Server-side

To create a subscription with a free trial period, see Subscription trials.

Create a subscription with the price and customer with status incomplete by providing the payment_behavior parameter with the value of default_incomplete.

Command Line

curl https://api.stripe.com/v1/subscriptions \
  -u sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc
: \
  -d "customer"="{{CUSTOMER_ID}}" \
  -d "items[0][price]"="price_F52b2UdntfQsfR" \
  -d "payment_behavior"="default_incomplete" \
  -d "payment_settings[payment_method_types][]"="acss_debit" \
  -d "expand[0]"="latest_invoice.payment_intent"

Included in the response is the subscription’s first PaymentIntent, containing the client secret, which is used on the client side to securely complete the payment process instead of passing the entire PaymentIntent object. Return the client_secret to the frontend to complete payment.

Collect payment method details and mandate acknowledgment
Client-side

To use Canadian pre-authorized debits, you must obtain authorization from your customer for one-time and recurring debits using a pre-authorized debit agreement (see PAD Mandates). The Mandate object records this agreement and authorization.

Stripe automatically configures subscription and invoice mandates for you. The customer only needs to acknowledge the mandate terms once, subsequent subscription charges will succeed without further intervention.

Newly acknowledged mandates have a three-day holding period required per Payments Canada network rules. The subscription’s first PaymentIntent has a processing status until the payment succeeds.

When a customer clicks to pay with Canadian pre-authorized debit, we recommend you use Stripe.js to submit the payment to Stripe. Stripe.js is our foundational JavaScript library for building payment flows. It will automatically handle integration complexities, and enables you to easily extend your integration to other payment methods in the future.

Include the Stripe.js script on your checkout page by adding it to the head of your HTML file.

checkout.html

<head>
  <title>Checkout</title>
  <script src="https://js.stripe.com/v3/"></script>
</head>

Create an instance of Stripe.js with the following JavaScript on your checkout page.

client.js

// Set your publishable key. Remember to change this to your live publishable key in production!
// See your keys here: https://dashboard.stripe.com/apikeys
const stripe = Stripe('pk_test_TYooMQauvdEDq54NiTphI7jx');

Rather than sending the entire PaymentIntent object to the client, use its client secret from the previous step. This is different from your API keys that authenticate Stripe API requests.

The client secret should still be handled carefully because it can complete the charge. Do not log it, embed it in URLs, or expose it to anyone but the customer.

Use stripe.confirmAcssDebitPayment to collect bank account details and verification, confirm the mandate, and complete the payment when the user submits the form. Including the customer’s email address and the account holder’s name in the billing_details property of the payment_method parameter is required to create a PAD payment method.

const form = document.getElementById('payment-form');
const accountholderName = document.getElementById('accountholder-name');
const email = document.getElementById('email');
const submitButton = document.getElementById('submit-button');
const clientSecret = submitButton.dataset.secret;

form.addEventListener('submit', async (event) => {
  event.preventDefault();

  const {paymentIntent, error} = await stripe.confirmAcssDebitPayment(
    clientSecret,
    {
      payment_method: {
        billing_details: {
          name: accountholderName.value,
          email: email.value,
        },
      },
    }
  );

  if (error) {
    // Inform the customer that there was an error.
    console.log(error.message);
  } else {
      // Handle next step based on PaymentIntent's status.
      console.log("PaymentIntent ID: " + paymentIntent.id);
      console.log("PaymentIntent status: " + paymentIntent.status);
  }
});

Stripe.js then loads an on-page modal UI that handles bank account details collection and verification, presents a hosted mandate agreement and collects authorization.

stripe.confirmAcssDebitPayment may take several seconds to complete. During that time, disable your form from being resubmitted and show a waiting indicator like a spinner. If you receive an error, show it to the customer, re-enable the form, and hide the waiting indicator.

If the customer completes instant verification, the subscription automatically becomes active. Otherwise, consult the following section to handle micro-deposit verification while the subscription remains incomplete.

Verify bank account with micro-deposits
Client-side

Customers have 10 days to successfully verify micro-deposits for a subscription, instead of 23 hours normally given in the subscription lifecycle. However, this expiration can’t be later than the billing cycle date.

Not all customers can verify the bank account instantly. This step only applies if your customer has elected to opt out of the instant verification flow in the previous step.

In this case, Stripe automatically sends two micro-deposits to the customer’s bank account. These deposits take one to two business days to appear on the customer’s online statement and have statement descriptors that include ACCTVERIFY.

The result of the stripe.confirmAcssDebitPayment method call in the previous step is a PaymentIntent in the requires_action state. The PaymentIntent contains a next_action field that contains some useful information for completing the verification.

Stripe notifies your customer at the billing email when the deposits are expected to arrive. The email includes a link to a Stripe-hosted verification page where they can confirm the amounts of the deposits and complete verification.

There is a limit of three failed verification attempts. If this limit is exceeded, the bank account can no longer be verified. In addition, there is a timeout for micro-deposit verifications of 10 days. If micro-deposits are not verified in that time, the PaymentIntent reverts to requiring new payment method details. Clear messaging about what these micro-deposits are and how you use them can help your customers avoid verification issues.

Optional: Custom email and verification page

If you choose to send custom email notifications, you have to email your customer instead. To do this, you can use the verify_with_microdeposits[hosted_verification_url] URL in the next_action object to direct your customer to complete the verification process.

If you are sending custom emails and don’t want to use the Stripe hosted verification page, you can create a form on your site for your customers to relay these amounts to you and verify the bank account using Stripe.js.

stripe.verifyMicrodepositsForPayment(clientSecret, {
  amounts: [32, 45],
});

Set the default payment method
Server

You now have an active subscription belonging to a customer with a payment method, but this payment method isn’t automatically used for future payments. To automatically bill this payment method in the future, use a webhook consumer to listen to the invoice.payment_succeeded event for new subscriptions and set the default payment method.

server.rb

# Set your secret key. Remember to switch to your live secret key in production.
# See your keys here: https://dashboard.stripe.com/apikeys
Stripe.api_key = 'sk_test_4eC39HqLyjWDarjtT1zdp7dc'

if event.type == 'invoice.payment_succeeded'
  invoice = event.data.object
  if invoice['billing_reason'] == 'subscription_create'
    subscription_id = invoice['subscription']
    payment_intent_id = invoice['payment_intent']

    # Retrieve the payment intent used to pay the subscription
    payment_intent = Stripe::PaymentIntent.retrieve(payment_intent_id)

    # Set the default payment method
    Stripe::Subscription.update(
      subscription_id,
      default_payment_method: payment_intent.payment_method
    )
  end
end

Manage subscription status
Client-side

Assuming the initial payment succeeds, the state of the subscription is active and requires no further action. When payments fail, the status changes to the Subscription status configured in your automatic collection settings. Notify the customer upon failure and charge them with a different payment method.

Canadian pre-authorized debit payments are never automatically retried, even if you have a retry schedule configured for other payment methods.

Test your integration

It is possible to both skip the mandate delay and receive the micro-deposit verification email by providing an email in the form of {any_prefix}+skip_waiting+test_email@{any_domain}.

Skip mandate delay

After collecting the bank account details and accepting a mandate, Canadian pre-authorized debit payments are held for three days before charging (see PAD Mandates).

To test a payment that will immediately attempt to charge after verification is complete, provide an email in the payment_method[billing_details][email] field in the form of {any_prefix}+skip_waiting@{any_domain} when confirming the payment method details.

Receive micro-deposit verification email

In order to receive the micro-deposit verification email in test mode after collecting the bank account details and accepting a mandate, provide an email in the payment_method[billing_details][email] field in the form of {any_prefix}+test_email@{any_domain} when confirming the payment method details.

Test account numbers

Stripe provides several test account numbers you can use to make sure your integration for manually-entered bank accounts is ready for production. All test accounts that automatically succeed or fail the payment must be verified using the test micro-deposit amounts below before they can be completed.

Institution Number	Transit Number	Account Number	Scenario
`000`	`11000`	`000123456789`	Succeeds the payment immediately after micro-deposits are verified.
`000`	`11000`	`900123456789`	Succeeds the payment with a three-minute delay after micro-deposits are verified.
`000`	`11000`	`000222222227`	Fails the payment immediately after micro-deposits are verified.
`000`	`11000`	`900222222227`	Fails the payment with a three-minute delay after micro-deposits are verified.
`000`	`11000`	`000666666661`	Fails to send verification micro-deposits.

To mimic successful or failed bank account verifications in test mode, use these meaningful amounts for micro-deposits:

Micro-deposit Values	Scenario
`32` and `45`	Successfully verifies the account.
Any other number combinations	Fails account verification.

Set up a subscription with pre-authorized debit in Canada

Create a product and price
Dashboard

Create the subscription
Server-side

Collect payment method details and mandate acknowledgment
Client-side

Verify bank account with micro-deposits
Client-side

Optional: Custom email and verification page

Set the default payment method
Server

Manage subscription status
Client-side

Test your integration

Skip mandate delay

Receive micro-deposit verification email

Test account numbers

OptionalSetting the billing cycle

OptionalSubscription trials

OptionalSaving payment method details for future use

Set up a subscription with pre-authorized debit in Canada

Create a product and priceDashboard

Create the subscriptionServer-side

Collect payment method details and mandate acknowledgmentClient-side

Verify bank account with micro-depositsClient-side

Optional: Custom email and verification page

Set the default payment methodServer

Manage subscription statusClient-side

Test your integration

Skip mandate delay

Receive micro-deposit verification email

Test account numbers

OptionalSetting the billing cycle

OptionalSubscription trials

OptionalSaving payment method details for future use

Create a product and price
Dashboard

Create the subscription
Server-side

Collect payment method details and mandate acknowledgment
Client-side

Verify bank account with micro-deposits
Client-side

Set the default payment method
Server

Manage subscription status
Client-side