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2025.09.12Gave a talk at Ogaki Naka Rotary Club
2025.11.04Registered as an AI & DX “Expert Talent” at the Gifu Chamber of Commerce and Industry
2025.11.17Upgraded our servers to ensure stable ultra-fast delivery after a temporary issue caused by a surge in traffic.

Security Considerations for Recurring Payments | Advanced Payment Strategies: Subscriptions and Recurring Billing | Stripe for Next.js: A Developer's Guide to Seamless Payments

Section

Security Considerations for Recurring Payments

Part of The Prince Academy's AI & DX engineering stack.

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When implementing subscriptions and recurring billing with Stripe, security is paramount. You're not just processing a single transaction; you're entrusting customer payment information for ongoing charges. Stripe provides robust tools, but it's crucial to understand and implement them correctly to protect your users and your business.

Here are the key security considerations for recurring payments:

Never Store Sensitive Card Details Yourself: This is the golden rule. Your application should never directly handle or store raw credit card numbers, CVC codes, or expiration dates. This significantly reduces your PCI compliance burden and the risk of a data breach.

Leverage Stripe Elements for Tokenization: Stripe Elements are pre-built UI components that securely collect payment information directly from your customers. When a customer enters their card details, Elements securely transmit this information to Stripe's servers and return a secure token. This token represents the payment method without exposing sensitive data to your application.

import { Elements } from '@stripe/react-stripe-js';
import CheckoutForm from './CheckoutForm';

function App() {
  const stripePromise = loadStripe('YOUR_STRIPE_PUBLISHABLE_KEY');

  return (
    <Elements stripe={stripePromise}>
      <CheckoutForm />
    </Elements>
  );
}

Use stripe.createPaymentMethod for Subscription Creation: When creating a new subscription, you'll use the token obtained from Stripe Elements to create a PaymentMethod. This PaymentMethod can then be attached to a Customer object in Stripe. This ensures that Stripe securely stores and manages the customer's payment details for future use.

import { useStripe, useElements } from '@stripe/react-stripe-js';

function CheckoutForm() {
  const stripe = useStripe();
  const elements = useElements();

  const handleSubmit = async (event) => {
    event.preventDefault();
    if (!stripe || !elements) {
      return;
    }

    const cardElement = elements.getElement(CardElement);

    const { paymentMethod } = await stripe.createPaymentMethod({
      type: 'card',
      card: cardElement,
    });

    // Send paymentMethod.id to your backend to create a customer and subscription
  };

  // ... JSX for CardElement and submit button
}

Next section: Testing Your Subscription Flows

// On your backend (e.g., using Node.js with the Stripe SDK)
const stripe = require('stripe')('YOUR_STRIPE_SECRET_KEY');

const createSubscription = async (customerId, paymentMethodId, priceId) => {
  const customer = await stripe.customers.update(customerId, {
    invoice_settings: { default_payment_method: paymentMethodId },
  });

  const subscription = await stripe.subscriptions.create({
    customer: customerId,
    items: [{ price: priceId }],
    payment_behavior: 'default_incomplete',
    expand: ['latest_invoice.payment_intent'],
  });

  return subscription;
};

import express from 'express';
import Stripe from 'stripe';

const stripe = new Stripe('YOUR_STRIPE_SECRET_KEY');
const endpointSecret = 'YOUR_STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET';

const app = express();

app.post('/webhook', express.raw({ type: 'application/json' }), (request, response) => {
  const sig = request.headers['stripe-signature'];
  let event;

  try {
    event = stripe.webhooks.constructEvent(request.body, sig, endpointSecret);
  } catch (err) {
    console.log(`Webhook signature verification failed: ${err.message}`);
    return response.sendStatus(400);
  }

  // Handle the event
  switch (event.type) {
    case 'invoice.payment_succeeded':
      // Fulfill the order or update subscription status
      break;
    case 'customer.subscription.deleted':
      // Handle subscription cancellation
      break;
    // ... handle other event types
    default:
      console.log(`Unhandled event type ${event.type}`);
  }

  response.json({ received: true });
});

// When creating a subscription on your backend:
const subscription = await stripe.subscriptions.create({
  customer: customerId,
  items: [{ price: priceId }],
  // ... other parameters
}, {
  idempotencyKey: 'your_unique_idempotency_key_here',
});