Upgrading from one member tier to a higher level - does Ghost know to prorate?

I have multiple levels of membership with varying access to content. When someone is at tier 1 and wants to upgrade to tier 2, does ghost know to send STRIPE information that will allow this new subscription to be prorated? If I have a member who’s paid $50 for the year and they upgrade to the $75/year plan, will they automatically only be charged $25?

Yes. If your user subscribes for $250 and then comes back and selects the $300 plan, they’ll get charged another $50. Where the behavior may surprise you/them is that if they’re half way through their year at $250, they’re going to get $125 credited towards the $300, so they’ll get charged $175. That behavior could be more clearly explained in the Ghost portal than it currently is.

If your user signs up at $300 and then downgrades immediately to the $250 plan, they’re going to get no immediate refund, but they’ll get a $50 credit towards the next renewal (a year later), so that one will happen at $200. And then the next one will happen at $250

Some writing I did about changing prices in Stripe previously: Can you change subscription prices in Ghost? (not an exact answer to your question.)

I don’t necessarily think the current behavior is “wrong”, but I do wish that the Portal would expose when and what the customer is going to be billed. My user whose bill a year from now will be $200 due to a $50 credit doesn’t see any of that in Ghost - they just see that they’re on the $250 plan. This is something that could definitely be better than it is!

3 Likes

ty, You’re the best, always chiming in and offering help. Appreciate you

1 Like

I’m offering an upgrade and I want to make sure I understand how it works.

Current member paid $60 for the year, I offer an upgrade to the $100 a year tier and I offer 10% off so the cost is $90. In reality, they owe $30 b/c of the $60 they already paid.

However, they paid that $60, 3 months ago. That’s 25% of a year so they don’t pay $90-$60=30, they actually pay $90-($60*.75)=$45.

They pay $45 and now have a 1 year membership at the new tier that starts TODAY and goes for 12 months (assuming they do the upgrade today)

Am I understanding that correctly?

1 Like