How to Set Up Automated Pass Expiry Reminders That Actually Get Read

A membership that lapses without warning is a frustrating experience for the customer and lost revenue for the business. An expired loyalty card means a customer who was actively engaged suddenly has no reason to return. Most of this attrition is preventable — the customer did not intend to leave, they simply missed the renewal window because nobody told them it was closing.

Wallet pass push notifications are the most effective channel for expiry reminders. A 69% open rate means that when you send a push to a pass holder, more than two thirds of them see it — compared with roughly 20% for email. The sequence described below uses three notifications to keep the renewal front of mind from 30 days out to the day of expiry.

Why three messages, not one

A single expiry reminder sent 30 days out gives the customer plenty of time to act — and plenty of time to forget about it. A single reminder on the day of expiry creates urgency but no preparation window. Three messages — spread across 30 days, 7 days and the day itself — work together to create awareness, reinforce the urgency and catch the customers who missed the earlier messages.

Each message in the sequence has a specific job. The 30-day message is informational: the customer learns that renewal is coming and has time to act without pressure. The 7-day message is motivational: it ties renewal to something they value — their current tier status, their accumulated points, a benefit they would lose. The day-of message is transactional: this is the last chance, and the call to action should be immediate.

Message 1: 30 days before expiry

Purpose: Early awareness, low pressure.

Suggested copy: “Your [Brand] membership renews on [date] — tap to check your details.”

Keep this message under 100 characters. Lock screen notifications truncate at around that length on most devices, and everything important needs to be visible in the preview. Include the renewal date explicitly — “renews on 7 April” is more motivating than “renews in 30 days” because a specific date feels real.

Update the pass back fields before sending this push. Add a field showing the renewal date and a link to the renewal page. The customer who taps the notification and opens the pass should be able to complete the renewal in one more tap from the back of the pass.

Message 2: 7 days before expiry

Purpose: Motivational, tie renewal to something they value.

Suggested copy: “One week to go — renew your membership and keep your [tier] status.”

At seven days, the customer should feel something at stake. If they are on a Gold tier, “keep your Gold status” is more compelling than a generic renewal reminder. If they have accumulated points, reference the balance: “Renew now and keep your 1,240 points.” The specific number makes the loss feel concrete.

Personalise this message using the customer's name if your platform supports it. “Hi Emma, one week to go” consistently outperforms a generic opener in retention messaging. Wallet push notifications that reference real data — tier, points balance, member since date — feel like communications from a business that knows the customer, rather than automated broadcasts.

Message 3: Day of expiry

Purpose: Final call to action, immediate urgency.

Suggested copy: “Your membership expires today — renew now to keep your rewards.”

The day-of message should be the shortest and most direct of the three. No preamble, no softening — just the fact that the membership expires today and a clear instruction to act. Update the pass to reflect the expiry-day state: if the membership is expiring, the pass header or a prominent field should reflect that.

Time this notification carefully. Sending at 7 am gives the customer the full working day to act. Sending at 5 pm creates urgency but may catch the customer in the evening commute with no time to complete a renewal. Aim for 9–10 am in the customer's local timezone where possible.

Technical note: wallet push cannot carry URLs

A common misconception is that the push notification itself can include a clickable renewal link. It cannot. Wallet pass push notifications are plain text — no URLs, no buttons, no rich content. The customer taps the notification, which opens the pass in their wallet, and then taps a link in the pass back fields to reach your renewal page.

This means the renewal URL must be embedded in the back fields of the pass beforeyou send the push notification. Update the pass with the renewal link as part of the push trigger — not as a separate step after. If the link is missing when the customer taps through, the experience breaks.

How to build the automation

The expiry reminder sequence runs on a scheduled job that checks expiry dates daily and triggers the appropriate notification based on days remaining.

Server-side cron job. The most direct approach: a cron job runs at a fixed time each day, queries your pass database for records where expiry is exactly 30 days away, exactly 7 days away or exactly 0 days away and triggers a push for each match. This requires your own server or a managed cron service.

Zapier with a delay. If you are using Zapier, trigger a zap at pass creation that uses Zapier's Delay step — set to fire 30 days before the expiry date. A second branch fires 7 days before, and a third on the day. Each branch updates the pass fields and triggers the appropriate push. This approach requires no server-side code, but relies on the zap running continuously over the membership period.

CRM-based automation. If your members are in HubSpot or a similar CRM, use a workflow that calculates days until expiry and enrols members in a sequence as they approach the 30-day window. Each workflow step calls the Issuepass API to update the pass and trigger the push. This keeps the automation inside your existing CRM tooling and allows you to suppress notifications for members who have already renewed.

How Issuepass handles expiry reminders

Issuepass pass templates support expiry date fields that are stored per-pass and queryable via the API. You can query passes expiring within a date range, batch-update their back fields with renewal links and trigger push notifications to the matching set — all via the API in a few requests.

For teams using our HubSpot integration, the expiry reminder sequence can be built entirely within HubSpot workflows: enrol members at 30 days out, suppress already-renewed members from the 7-day and day-of steps, and trigger the Issuepass push API at each stage.

Ready to stop losing customers to silent expiries? Start free and set up your first expiry reminder sequence today.