bloomingfaeries
patreon
Subscription Billing on Patreon
🕑 Added 2022-09-30 09:05:50 +0000 UTCAs of today, I've switched to subscription billing, a new option from Patreon. If you want to know what this changes for you (existing backers), it changes nothing. If the details of the change interest you, read on.
In the past (and since the beginning), Patreon's monthly billing was a profoundly flawed system: they only ever charged backers on the 1st of every month. If you joined on the 20th and left on the 25th, you could take all the content and walk away without compensating the creator.
With the new system, you are charged immediately, then at the same date every month (which is how standard billing systems work—like Netflix, for example). They have finally deployed that new system and I've switched to it. For all of you, if you were already a backer, your "join date" is treated as the first of the month and you'll continue being charged on that date. Any new backer, however, will always be charged on the date they have joined (including those that were once backers and have left).
So like said at the top, this doesn't change anything for you existing backers. It's just the next ones that will be impacted, and it'll be along the lines of what they'd expect anyway.
Now I have to go and change my welcome message, my advertising, and so on. :)
--Jaycee
Comments
Jaycee Knight
That's fine. I tend to be fairly loose about this anyway, and I'm just grateful for any and all backers that stick around, no matter the amount.
d from birmingham
you never told me in message to follow through so you obviously saw I paid for the month I joined. due to a bit of money trouble I had to lower the pledges on numerous creators and will have that be at the lower amount till next year
Jaycee Knight
It's very odd that a company like Patreon would do this under the table and no change management with its user base. That seems like a recipe for disaster, both on the technical front and from a PR standpoint. But at the end of the day, at least now it's done and I can stop telling my new backers that they'll get blocked if they don't follow through with their pledge. That was never a fun or friendly message to deliver.
d from birmingham
just reporting my own billing exp and that this has been the way for well almost a year. according to the billing faq there are four types of billing methods and if a creator meets certain criteria annual memberships can be unlocks.
Jaycee Knight
Also, under the new system, my payments still occur on the same date.
Jaycee Knight
This is still surprising. They emailed me about this new program this week, but it wasn't active until I clicked a specific button for it yesterday.
d from birmingham
you might have seen your part of payment come in much later rather then immediately. patreon has had money issues so holding that part back as long as they could benefited them
d from birmingham
no mention of a beta program. i think they just rolled it out long ago to stop the bots who would subcribe steal all content then unsubscribe before the next month so they wouldn't get billed. once the bot creators got hit when they subcribed the bots stopped when patreon refused the chargeback.
Jaycee Knight
This is somewhat surprising since they just rolled this out this week. Unless you were part of the beta program, maybe that's it...
d from birmingham
weird the billing has always been at least for me instantly when I joined no matter the date then billed on the first of the next month. if you quit after joining you were still billed for the month but still had access to the feed for the rest of the month. this was apparently Patreon's way of letting people do one time donations to creators since some people wanted to do custom donations of say a hundred bucks so some creators could buy something they needed
Jaycee Knight
Agreed. Their old billing system was a pain point that was counterintuitive, open to abuse, and a source of frustration for creators and backers alike.
A Man with Joe Name
Honestly, it's about time they did that.
