!Important! (Patreon)
Content
This option has been available for me since last year but I never enabled it. Charge up front can be the best solution of our past problem regarding some fraud patrons. Who are fraud patrons? Types of these troublesome patrons we found so far:
- Fraud. Someone who register as a patron to a creator but fill in a false data on billing info.
- Hit and run patron. They picked highest tier to see all the exclusive posts and then withdrawn without completing their pledge (without paying at the beginning of next month). This one hurts me so much. More than those frauds because they gets a way easily without any penalty.
- Declined and run. Someone who register as a patron, their billing info got declined, perhaps because they don't have enough balance on their chosen billing method? These patrons will get notification message from both patreon and me, so they can check their billing info to fix it. But they never did. These patrons will automatically blocked by patreon for seeing creator's contents until they fix the payment.
The first fraud type are easily detected, so I can just block them. But the second and third, are hard to identify. I need to wait for a month, give them a chance to fix their pledge, and then decide to block them. The problem is, I always forgot to T^T
So the best solution is to enable "charge up front". Which mean, it is impossible for fraud patrons to register as a patron in the first place because they check everyone's billing info as soon as they register. I haven't enable this option yet because I didn't get many frauds like I was before on this post: https://www.patreon.com/posts/bad-news-vs-good-15666336
I found some troublesome patrons in the last three months periods. So I think this is the time to enable this option. What happen when I enable it?
- Rewards delivery. It will be sooner than before because we don't have to wait for declined patrons to fix their payment first.
- For existing patrons, nothing will change, you will be charged on the 1st of the month like usual.
- For existing patrons who increase their pledge within this month, they will be charge immediately after I enable charge up front. Example: a patron increased their pledge from $1 to $3, he/she will be charged $2 a day after I enable the charge up front. Because $3+ patrons get psd rewards, I'll send the psd download link immediately to the said patron if this happen.
- Patrons will not be able to take a peek on patron-only content. No more hit and run patrons!
You can read more info about charge up front feature here https://support.patreon.com/hc/en-us/articles/210291283
Let me know what you think!