What happens if I stop paying?
Updated September 2026
Protection needs two things at once: an active subscription and a lock that has not reached its end. Lose the subscription and the phone stops being entitled, so a 72 hour lapse window opens on the server; when it runs out the server releases the shields, whatever your term said. Your keyholder is told either way, by email from Apple's own notification to our server, so a lapse reaches them even if your phone never checks in again. Renewing inside the window closes it and nothing is released.
Two inputs, one gate
Fold'em blocks when the term is still running and the Apple subscription is active. Both, at once. Remove either one and the blocking comes off, which is why a subscription that ends is a real ending and not a technicality.
This corrects an older answer. Fold'em used to promise that the lock outlived the subscription and that blocking continued to the end of the term whatever happened to the payment. That is no longer how it works, and the current rule is the plain one: no subscription, no blocking, after a window. The change was made deliberately, and the 72 hour lapse window it left behind is the fastest way out of a Fold'em block that exists.
The 72 hour lapse window
The moment Apple reports that the subscription has ended, the server stamps a lapse window on your account and sets it to open 72 hours later. Nothing changes on the phone during those three days: the apps stay sealed, the sites stay blocked, the day count keeps running. When the window opens, a sweep that runs every few minutes flips your exclusion to released, cancels any open exit request, and the phone drops the shields the next time it reconciles.
This window is one of five things in Fold'em that last 72 hours, and it is the only one about money. The others are the wait after a keyholder approves an exit, the deletion lock's unlock window, the Games category release and an invite link's lifetime. None of them is this one, and none of them is shortened or lengthened by it.
Renewing before the window opens closes it. The server clears the window, nothing is released, and your keyholder is sent a note that protection continued.
What your keyholder is told
Apple notifies our server directly when a subscription expires, fails to renew, leaves its grace period, is refunded or is revoked. That notification does not travel through your phone, which is the point of it: a lapse reaches your keyholder even if the phone is off, offline or in a drawer, so letting the payment fail is not a quiet way out.
They are told the fact and the date, in two shapes. A subscription that ran out reads as the subscription ending; a reversed payment reads as protection ended with the payment reversed. They are never told an amount, a plan, a card or anything else about your money, because no dollar amount reaches a partner anywhere in Fold'em. Their Wallet card turns to Subscription lapsed and carries the date the cover ends.
What you see, and what they see
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Your Home screen says so
A red card headed What happens next appears under the safe, reading Payment lapsed, with the line We've got you for a few days, but do not let this ruin your progress, and under it Ends within 3 days. Its one button is Renew. The safe above it still reads Protected, because it is: nothing has been released yet.
Home, in a lapse
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Their card turns
Your keyholder's Wallet card shows Subscription lapsed as its status, Cover lapsed with a nudge to check in with you, and the date the cover ends beside the day count. That is the whole of what they get: a status word, a date, a first name.
The pass, subscription lapsed
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Renew, or let it open
Renew opens a list carrying the three plans, Restore purchases and Apple's manage subscriptions sheet together, so a card that failed and a subscription that was cancelled both have a way back on one screen. Renewing puts the block back on the same end date the term always had; it does not restart your term and it does not give back the days.
What this does not do
A lapse does not end your term. The term keeps its end date, the day count keeps its history, your keyholder stays your keyholder and your circle is untouched; what stops is the enforcement, not the arrangement. Your phone does not decide any of this: the window is stamped, counted and opened by the server, and the phone only puts back what it is told. The app cannot tell a refund from an expiry on its own, so it treats both the same way and lets the server carry the sharper wording to your keyholder. And the card deliberately does not print an end date: your phone notices a lapse later than the server stamps it, so a date on the phone could promise more protected time than the server will actually give, and Ends within 3 days is the strongest claim that is always true.
Still stuck? Email support@foldem.app and we answer within two working days.