Update to Patreon Billing - A Huge Win! (Patreon)

Hi everyone! Earlier today, Patreon released the most exciting news about billing. It's a feature that has been asked for, for YEARS, from creators, but especially patrons who want to support!

What has changed?

• Creators now have the ability to switch their billing to a new method - where a patron is charged on the day they sign up and every month on that day after.
• How it worked is a patron would sign up on a day of the month (16th for example) and then be charged on the 1st of the following month and on the 1st of each month after. (For charge upfront billing, which most creators use.)

Why was this bad?

• If a patron wanted to sign up near the end of the month, they would be charged the tier price twice in a short period of time (sign up on the 28th and then be charged on the 1st again). This is a bad experience, as most other subscription services charge you monthly from the day you signed up. 
• This resulted in creators not plugging their Patreon pages near month-end, and patrons who wanted to sign up waiting until the 1st to do so. And chances are if you wait, you might end up forgetting to sign up anyway.

I have immediately switched my billing method to this format, because this has been a pain point for me with my Patreon over the years.

How does the billing change for current patrons?

It doesn't. You will continue to be billed on the 1st of the month as you always have been since you signed up. If you are a brand new patron who signed up before today, you will also continue to see your charge go through on the 1st of October and 1st of each month after.

However, if you cancel your pledge to me and your access expires and then re-pledge again later on, you are considered a new patron and that will fall under the NEW billing model of being charged on the day you pledge and on that day each month moving forward.

Where can I read more about this?

Patreon posted an FAQ document that covers all the details. Remember that creators can opt-in or opt-out of this. So make sure to review the details closely if you are signing up to a new creator here on Patreon! This may mean that you end up having different billing dates for your creators instead of having all the charges come out on the 1st of the month.

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This is a very welcome change for my space. I've had to refund people in the past and have these conversations often and I'm so pleased that I no longer have to worry about when in the month I am talking about my Patreon.

Thank you for reading!

✦ KL