Use this article to retry a failed payment for a pledge you made during a paddle raise. If the card or bank account you chose when you pledged didn’t go through, you can pay with a different payment method from your BetterWorld account in a few steps.
Who can do this: The donor who made the paddle raise pledge, signed in to their BetterWorld account.
Why a paddle raise pledge payment fails
When you pledge during a paddle raise, you choose a saved card or bank account, and the organization charges your pledge after the event. A paddle raise pledge payment can fail for several reasons, such as insufficient funds, an expired card, a canceled card, or a bank account that’s no longer active.
If your paddle raise pledge payment fails, you’ll get an email with the subject “Your pledge payment to [Organization name] has failed.” Your pledge is still unpaid until you retry it.
How to retry a failed paddle raise pledge payment
To retry a failed paddle raise pledge payment, follow these steps:
Open the failed payment email and click Retry Payment, or sign in to your BetterWorld account and go to My Account → Donations (https://account.betterworld.org/donation-transactions).
Find the failed payment and click Update payment method.
Review why the payment failed. The page shows the reason (for example, “Your card was declined”) and which payment method failed. If the reason isn’t known, you’ll see “We couldn’t charge your payment method.”
Choose a different saved card or bank account, or add a new one. The payment method that failed isn’t shown as an option.
Click Save to complete your payment.
Check for the confirmation on the screen. You’ll also get a receipt by email. Done!
Once your paddle raise pledge payment goes through, the failed payment leaves your donation history and the organization sees your payment as successful.
Please Note: If you pay with a bank account, your payment may show as pending for up to 6–7 days while it clears. You’ll get your receipt once it clears.
Why you can’t retry your paddle raise pledge payment
If you can’t retry your paddle raise pledge payment, one of the following is usually the reason:
Your pledge is already paid. The organization may have marked it as paid, it was paid through an invoice, or you already retried it in another browser tab.
Your pledge is on an open invoice from the organization. Pay the invoice instead.
A bank payment for your pledge is still pending. Wait for it to clear or fail, which can take up to 6–7 days.
The organization is charging pledges at that moment. Try again in a few minutes.
You tried too many times in a short period. Wait and try again later.
If none of these apply and you still can’t complete your paddle raise pledge payment, contact the organization you pledged to, or email our support team at [email protected].