Patreon Changes
Added 2018-08-01 20:36:03 +0000 UTCIt hasn’t happened to anyone here, because you guys are awesome and honest, but I’ve had people who pledged, went through the Patreon content, and then canceled their Patreon subscription (basically getting the content for free).
Just to be clear, I’m not talking about people switching between tiers trying to find one that suits them the most, that’s totally fine. I’m not talking about people canceling after a couple of months, that’s totally fine as well!
I mean literally people who sign up for Patreon for the first time, and then cancel before their first payment is due.
Obviously, no one died, the world didn’t end, but it kind of sucks.
It sucks because you guys paid for that content, while people who wanted to trick the system got it for free.
Patreon is making some changes available to avoid that in the future.
You can read the full article outlining the changes below:
In a nutshell…
New Patrons: New Patrons will be charged on the day they become your patron, giving them access to all content shared with their reward tier. On the 1st of the following month, they will simply return to being charged monthly at the beginning of the month.
Example: A patron joins your Patreon community on February 25th for $10 per month. They will be charged $10 on the day they join, February 25th, for February patronage. On March 1st, the Patron will be charged $10 for March patronage.
Existing Patrons: Your existing patrons will be charged on the 1st of the month like usual. However, if they increase or decrease their pledge the month you switch to charge up front, they will be billed immediately in full.
Example: A patron joins your Patreon community on January 5th for $10 per month. The patron is charged on February 1st for January patronage. On February 25th, you change your payment type so that patrons are charged up front. The patron will be charged $10 on March 1st for March patronage. If this patron increased their pledge on February 26th to $20, they would be billed $20 on the 26th for February.
On the 1st of the month (and every 1st of the month thereafter) they will be charged the full amount of their pledge until they cancel or edit their pledge.
Example: A patron signs up on January 5th for $10/month. The patron is charged on February 1st for January patronage. On February 25th, you change your payment type so that patrons are charged up front. On February 26th, the patron increases their pledge to $15. The patron will be charged $5 on February 26th. Then the patron will be charged $15 on March 1st for March patronage and they will continue to be charged $15 every 1st of the month thereafter until they cancel or edit their pledge.
