A client pays you, then a minute later their bank pings them with something like: "A purchase of $362.69 recurring transaction at [Your Business]." They see the word recurring and it can cause some confusion about whether they have been signed up for a subscription or will face future payments. This is one of the more common payment questions clients raise, and the good news is there is a simple explanation you can pass along.
Why the bank says "recurring"
When a client pays, Check Cherry can securely save their card on file so it can be used again for legitimate reasons later: the remaining balance after a deposit, scheduled payment plan installments, or auto-pay. To do that safely, the card is stored as a reusable credential.
Whenever a card is stored this way, the card networks (Visa and Mastercard) stamp the transaction with a flag that marks it as a stored or merchant-initiated credential. Issuing banks read that flag and, in their own notification copy, summarize it as a "recurring transaction." It is generic wording the bank chose, not text that comes from Check Cherry or from you. Neither you nor Check Cherry can control how a given bank phrases its alerts.
What it actually means for your client
Even when the charge genuinely can recur, the client is never exposed to a runaway subscription. Two things are always true:
- Charges only recur if your client is on a payment plan. A single full payment or a one-time deposit does not repeat. If you set up a payment plan, the scheduled installments are the only repeat charges, and they map exactly to the schedule the client already agreed to.
- Charges never exceed what your client owes. Any charge only goes toward the total they agreed to on their booking. There is no open-ended billing, no monthly fee, and nothing charged beyond their event.
So the answer to give a client who has questions is: yes, the charge may be flagged as recurring, and on a payment plan it really will recur, but it will only ever collect the balance for the event you both agreed to. For more on how installments work, see payment plans.
A message you can send your client
When a client reaches out confused about a "recurring transaction" charge, this reply clears it up. Copy it, adjust the details, and send it back by email or text: