Answers to common questions about payments, failed charges, and refunds in WP SmartPay.

Why is a payment showing as "Pending"?

A payment stays in Pending status when the gateway has received the charge request but hasn't confirmed the outcome yet. This is normal for:

  • PayPal Standard (IPN): PayPal notifies SmartPay asynchronously. Allow 1–5 minutes. If it stays Pending, check that your IPN URL is correctly set in your PayPal account under Profile → Notifications → Instant Payment Notifications.
  • Bank transfer gateways (Mollie SEPA, bKash): These have settlement delays of 1–3 business days by design.
  • Missing webhook: If a Stripe or Razorpay payment is Pending after 10 minutes, the webhook may not be registered. Go to SmartPay → Settings → Webhooks and verify the endpoint is listed in your gateway dashboard.

A customer says they were charged but I don't see the payment — what happened?

This usually means the webhook didn't fire or was missed:

  1. Log into your gateway dashboard (Stripe Dashboard → Events, Razorpay Dashboard → Webhooks) and look for the payment event.
  2. Check whether the webhook URL matches the one in SmartPay → Settings → Webhooks.
  3. Replay the event from the gateway dashboard — SmartPay will process it and create the payment record.

If the charge appears in your gateway but the replay fails, contact SmartPay support with the payment intent / order ID from the gateway.

How do I issue a full or partial refund?

  1. Go to SmartPay → Payments.
  2. Click the payment to open the detail view.
  3. Click Refund and enter the amount (leave blank for full refund).
  4. Confirm. SmartPay calls the gateway API immediately and the refund is initiated.

Refund timelines: Stripe — 5–10 business days; PayPal — 3–5 business days; Razorpay — 5–7 business days; Mollie — depends on payment method.

Can I refund a payment made more than 90 days ago?

This depends on your gateway:

  • Stripe: Refunds are available up to 90 days from the original charge.
  • PayPal: Refunds are available up to 180 days.
  • Razorpay: No official time limit, but older refunds may require support approval.

For payments outside the refund window, you'll need to issue a manual bank transfer or PayPal payment directly to the customer.

How do I re-send a payment receipt to a customer?

Go to SmartPay → Payments, open the payment, and click Resend Receipt. The customer will receive the same email that was sent at the time of purchase.

A customer's card was declined. What should they do?

The most common reasons for card declines:

  • Incorrect card number, expiry, or CVV — ask the customer to re-enter carefully
  • Insufficient funds — the customer needs to use a different card
  • Bank blocking international charges — the customer's bank may require authorization for online payments; they should call their bank
  • Daily transaction limit exceeded — common for prepaid debit cards

SmartPay displays the exact decline reason from the gateway on the checkout form so customers can see what went wrong immediately.

Is test mode active on my live site? How do I check?

Go to SmartPay → Settings → General. If Test Mode is enabled, a yellow notice appears at the top of every SmartPay admin page. Payments in test mode are fake — no real money moves. Always disable test mode before going live.

How do I change the currency for my payment forms?

Go to SmartPay → Settings → General → Currency. Set the currency and save. This changes the currency for all forms site-wide. Note: some gateways don't support certain currencies — if you switch to an unsupported currency, that gateway will fail at checkout.