Table checked against Stripe’s documentation on October 22, 2026. Stripe’s features change; check your Stripe settings for the latest.
What Stripe’s built-in reminders do
Stripe Invoicing can email a customer about an unpaid invoice before, on, or after its due date. For one-off invoices, you add as many reminders as you want under Settings › Billing › Invoices; recurring invoices have their own setting under Subscriptions and emails. Each email links to the invoice so the client can pay.
It’s useful, and it costs nothing beyond Stripe Invoicing itself. If your clients usually pay and you just want a polite automatic nudge, it’s the right place to start. Overdue invoices in Stripe walks through turning it on.
Where they stop
The problem is the clients who don’t pay after the first nudge: the ones who actually cost you.
- They don’t escalate. A reminder 3 days late and one 60 days late are the same Stripe email. There’s no firmer follow-up and no final notice with a date.
- There’s no consequence. A reminder a client can ignore indefinitely isn’t leverage. Nothing ever says: still unpaid after two weeks, so the staging site pauses until it’s paid.
- The words aren’t yours. You set the logo and colors, and Stripe writes the email.
For an agency, the invoice that drags on for two months is the expensive one. That’s the case built-in reminders don’t solve.
When Stripe’s reminders are enough
Stick with them if most invoices get paid on time, one gentle nudge does it, and you’d never pause a client’s work. No reason to pay for more than you use.
When you need real escalation
Consider a dedicated tool if you recognize any of these:
- Some clients routinely ignore the first and second email.
- You’d be paid sooner if the follow-ups got firmer instead of repeating.
- You’d like an unpaid client to lose access to the staging site, portal or deliverable until they settle, without an awkward conversation.
- You spend real time each week chasing by hand.
That’s what UntilPaid does. It reads overdue invoices straight from Stripe (and never edits them), runs a ladder you write (polite, then firmer, then a final notice with a date) and, on Pro, sends a signed webhook so your app can lock access until Stripe marks the invoice paid. Invoice reminder tools for Stripe, compared covers the other options too.