AutoPay Says Pending Active or Not Active on a BHPH Account

The Current Status on the Automatic Payment Processing screen of a buy-here-pay-here account has exactly three values: Active, PendingActive, and Not Active. This article explains what each one means, why an account sits at Pending Active after you add a card, and why deleting a card flips an account to Not Active on its own.

Questions this answers

• "I just added the customer's card and made it the default, but Automatic Payment Processing still shows them as Pending Active instead of Active. Is something broken?"
• "I tried to manually set a customer's autopay status to Active but there's no card on file, and it just kicked me over to the Add New Account screen. When I went back, it still shows Pending Active, not Active. Did that actually work?"
• "One of my customers deleted their old expired card, and now autopay says Not Active even though I never touched their status. Did I accidentally turn it off?"
• "If I ask the assistant to show me accounts that aren't on autopay, is it looking at the same autopay status as the Automatic Payment Processing screen, or something else?"

This article is only about the status value on the Automatic Payment Processing screen. For the step-by-step of storing a customer's card or bank account and turning drafts on, see the article on setting up recurring card or ACH payments. For late fees, see the buy-here-pay-here late fee article.

Where the status lives

Open the account, then choose More > Automatic Payment Processing. The screen shows the Payment Processor in use, the Current Status, a Change Status link, the Email Notification For Buyer panel, and the Payment Methods list. The Automatic Payment Processing option only appears on buy-here-pay-here accounts.

What each status means

The Change Status dialog only offers two choices: Active and Not Active. Pending Active is never something you pick — the system sets it for you.

Why setting Active without a card leaves you on Pending Active

If you choose Active and the account has no stored payment method at all, the system does not activate. Instead it opens the dialog for adding a payment method, shows the message "Please add a default card to use for automatic payment processing.", and records the status as Pending Active. Nothing is broken and nothing was activated — the request is being held until a payment method exists.

If the account has cards on file but none is marked as the default, choosing Active does nothing at all and you get "Please select a default card to use for automatic payment processing." The status is left as it was.

Getting from Pending Active to Active

The status is recalculated when the Automatic Payment Processing screen loads — not at the moment you add the card. So after you add the payment method, you have to come back to the screen for the change to show.

1. On the Automatic Payment Processing screen, click Add New Payment Method and complete the card or ACH details.
2. In the Payment Methods list, open the options menu on the row and choose Set As Default. The Default column should read Y.
3. Reload the Automatic Payment Processing screen (leave it and come back in from More > Automatic Payment Processing).

On that reload, an account sitting at Pending Active with a default payment method flips itself to Active, stamps the Status Updated On date, copies the billing email from the default payment method into the notification email, and switches on the success and failure email notices. The Print Authorization Form link also appears once the status is Active.

Why the status went to Not Active by itself

Deleting the customer's only stored payment method — or deleting the one that was marked as the default — automatically drops an Active account back to Not Active. There is no separate confirmation for the status change and no one had to touch the Change Status dialog. This is deliberate: an enrolled account with nothing to draft against would fail every time.

The same thing happens on the next screen load if the account is left with no payment method or no default: the status is forced to Not Active.

To re-enroll after the customer's card expires or is removed:

1. Click Add New Payment Method and enter the new card or bank account.
2. Choose Set As Default on the new row.
3. Click Change Status, choose Active, and save.

If the customer only needs a new expiry date on an existing card, use Edit billing info/card expiry date on the row instead of deleting and re-adding it — that leaves the enrollment alone.

What "not on autopay" means in lists and reports

The AutoPay filter in the collections worklist, and the AutoPay Yes/No column on the Current Accounts and Late Accounts Detail reports, read the same status shown on the Automatic Payment Processing screen. It is not a separate flag and it is not a check for whether a card exists.

The filter treats only Active as enrolled. Everything else — Not Active, PendingActive, and accounts that have never been touched — counts as not enrolled. So an account you believe you signed up, but which is still sitting at Pending Active because nobody set a default payment method, will legitimately appear in an "accounts not on autopay" list. That is usually the fastest way to find enrollments that stalled.

When to contact support

Contact support if an account shows Active with a default payment method on file but drafts are not being taken, or if the Automatic Payment Processing option does not appear under More on a buy-here-pay-here account.