The signal in Stripe

A charge failed, and afterwards the customer's default payment method changed: a new card was added, often via another purchase or an account update. The failed invoice is still sitting on the old, stale credential. Nothing is wrong except that nobody retried.

Why it happens

Customers fix things on their own schedule. They get the failure email, ignore it, then update their card a week later while buying something else. The subscription system, still pointed at the failed invoice, never connects the two events.

What happens if you do nothing

The most recoverable case in the entire taxonomy quietly expires. This is revenue lost not to a decline but to a missing observer: the money was there, the intent was there, and the retry never ran.

The play, step by step

Chaser, the Stripe-native failed-payment recovery tool, watches for payment-method changes on accounts with open failed invoices and retries once, immediately, against the new card. No email, no friction, no customer involvement at all. If the retry succeeds, the customer never hears about the failure again; if it fails, the case re-enters classification with the new decline code and the appropriate play takes over.

The email that works

Usually none, and that is the point. The best dunning email is the one the customer never needed. When a confirmation is warranted for a large invoice, one line suffices: "Your new card went through. All set."