KickstarterForum.org

Hi everyone,

So my team's kickstarter project was recently successfully funded, but there were several backers whose pledges were declined by their credit card providers. Kickstarter usually aids creators in advising backers on how to fix their pledges, with a time limit of 7 days before these backers are permanently dropped.

7 days have since passed and there are backers who weren't able to fix their pledges. Can anyone share some advice on what is a good way to collect the pledges from these backers that are permanently dropped? I am sure many backers have experienced the same problem as we are facing right now...

Looking forward to listening to all your valuable advice

Have you figured out what the good way is to contact backers whose their pledges were declined by their credit card provider. We have almost 30 backers which their payments were declined.
Kickstarter is sending an email to them every 48 hours and retries again in 7 days (for us on Monday). Some people turn off their email notification. I am thinking if they get Kickstarter fix payment emails at all? We do have their emails; However, I don't like to email them directly about money.

In our Indiegogo everything is clear and straight forward. The money was collected, also they can pay by PayPal.

With hundreds or thousands of backers being charged at once, it is completely normal for a portion of these credit cards charges to fail. Despite your best intentions to capture all payments, credit card charge failures can be from a variety of reasons such as insufficient funds or fraud protection from the backer’s credit institution.

When your campaign ends (and if you have successfully met your goal) then the backers’ credit cards get charged.

Here’s a full breakdown of the timeline of what happens after the campaign ends.

Campaign Ends — credit cards are charged. A percentage of backers become errored backers and have 1 week to fix their credit card.
7 days after end — all errored backers become dropped backers and can no longer fix their credit card issues.
14 days after end — money is transferred from Kickstarter to your bank account.
Soon after you receive your funds from Kickstarter — you’ll send a survey to your backers to gather important information about their order like their shipping address.

Here are two strategies to decrease the number of failed credit card charges.

1. Send personal messages to Errored Backers
When a backer’s credit card fails, Kickstarter immediately sends them a notification asking them to fix the issue within 7 days. This is useful, but you can also take matters into your own hands and communicate with your backers directly. It’s always better to hear directly from the campaigner (imagine hearing from the CEO fo your favorite brand!) so be sure to include this in your post-launch strategy.

Here’s how to do this after your campaign ends:

- Go to Backer Report.
- Click the “All backers” dropdown then choose “Errored backers”.
- After you’ve selected your Errored Backers, you have the option to message just those backers and can message them directly all at once.

Here’s the first message, sent right after the campaign ends:

Hey there!

I noticed that your credit card failed to charge for your [product] pre-order! I wanted to personally reach out to let you know that you only have 1 week to fix it in Kickstarter. If you don’t, then our team can’t guarantee that you’ll get your [product] at your Kickstarter discount.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

-[your name]

Here’s the second message that should be sent 6 days after the campaign ends, one day before Errored Backers become dropped pledges.

Hey there,

I just want to remind you that this is your last chance to update your credit card information on Kickstarter. If you don’t, then our team can’t guarantee that you’ll get your [product] at the discounted price.

Please login to Kickstarter and correct your credit card information as soon as you can. You can save a new credit card to your account by heading to the Payment Methods tab of your Account Settings and clicking the green ‘Add a new card’ button.

If you don’t by tomorrow, you will be dropped as a Kickstarter backer!

Please let me know if you have any questions!

-[your name]

As you can see, this is a very generic blast to all Errored Backers. To get an even higher response rate, be sure to go through your Errored Backers one-by-one to personalize your message to them.

2. Get all missing information with BackerKit
BackerKit is a tool that makes pledge management a breeze for your crowdfunding campaign. One of their best features (along with product upsells and address confirmation) is their ability to recover failed payments.

With BackerKit, you import all of your backers into their system once the campaign is over. Thankfully, Kickstarter provides information of dropped pledges and backers with failed credit cards so their information will also be included. These dropped backers are entered into the system with a pledge of $0, but BackerKit knows which reward they tried to pledge for.

When you send out surveys to your backers, BackerKit also sends surveys to the dropped backers and gives them another chance to enter in their credit card information and pay for the reward they tried to buy on Kickstarter. Voila! Even more dropped pledges get recovered in this way.

At the end of the day, recovering your Errored Backers and dropped pledges is one of many things you should do immediately after your campaign ends. If you're interested in what else you have to do after a campaign ends, have a read here: https://crushcrowdfunding.com/what-to-do-immediately-after-your-campaign-is-successfully-funded/

Very important information. Thanks a lot.


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Thanks!

I love such types of articles. I am always looking for new information in different fields. Not long ago, I applied for a credit card, and these days, they accepted my application. I have already managed to use its services, and I was surprised how simple it is now to have a quality credit card and all thanks to an application and the workers who make sure that everything is under control. I will try to put your advice into practice in the future because it never bothers you to know something like that.

I guess when dealing with declined payments, one effective solution to consider is using a skylightpaycard . This payment method offers a convenient way for backers to make contributions, reducing the chances of payment issues. Additionally, it's essential to communicate openly with backers, reminding them to update their payment details if needed, which can help prevent declined payments and ensure the success of your crowdfunding campaign.

New to kickstarter !The information is valuable

Congrats on your successful Kickstarter project! To address the declined pledges, try reaching out directly to those backers via email or Kickstarter messages. Post an update on your campaign page to notify them about the issue and how they can fix their payment details. Additionally, you might want to consider reopening pledge management briefly or using social media to spread the word. If possible, explore options like adding a late pledge or pre-order system to recover some of the funds. Keeping communication open and transparent will help in resolving the issue effectively. Good luck!

Congratulations on your successful Kickstarter project! To handle declined payments, try sending a follow-up email to the backers, giving them another chance to update their payment details. You might also consider using a pledge management service like BackerKit or CrowdOx to collect payments and manage pledges. Keep communication clear and offer an alternative payment method if possible. Good luck with your project!