Jonas Reif | Stripe Developers | Page 1

rugged timberBOT Jan 3, 2024, 11:49 AM

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spice portal Jan 3, 2024, 11:53 AM

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hi! that's a common ask but not something we natively support in our Billing product

opaque pebble Jan 3, 2024, 11:54 AM

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Hi Karllekko,

Thanks. Do you now if it will be supported in the short term?

spice portal Jan 3, 2024, 11:55 AM

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not really no, not something being actively worked on

opaque pebble Jan 3, 2024, 11:57 AM

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mhm ok :/
quite a basic feature

vague jackal Jan 3, 2024, 12:01 PM

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Either charge yearly; give incentive to the user like a discount if they pay full years cost upfront or monthly. Its kind of illegal in counties like Australia to force a lock in contract to a user if they are not using a service.

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Even basic utilities like electricity companies cant FORCE a payment like you want!

opaque pebble Jan 3, 2024, 12:21 PM

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We are offering our products mainly in german speaking markets. I dont know the Australian law.

In Germany, many businesses legally offer yearly subscriptions with monthly payments. After the initial term (e.g., 1 year), customers can cancel monthly. For instance, a customer preferring a $120/year membership might opt for $10/month payments for affordability. This approach aligns with German law, providing flexibility.

Whats wrong about that?

spice portal Jan 3, 2024, 12:23 PM

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in terms of actually implementing that in Stripe, either you have a yearly subscription(bills once a year, or a monthly one(bills every month) and both of those continue indefinitely until cancelled(and can be cancelled either immediately or set to cancel at the end of the current billing period(either the year, or the month, depending on what period you're using).

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you can try and do clever things with SubscriptionSchedules to set a monthly subscription to cancel at some point in the future(https://stripe.com/docs/billing/subscriptions/subscription-schedules/use-cases#installment-plans) but overall the concept of "the product is actually for a years access, but billed every month" is not really built-in to Stripe Billing, either you have a yearly or a monthly subscription, and beyond that you can build some additional structure/databases/concepts on your side

opaque pebble Jan 3, 2024, 12:32 PM

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@spice portal
Thanks. Got it, that its outside of Billing Portal scope today.

@vague jackal @spice portal
Cancelling a yearly subscription after the inital term (e.g. after one year) on a monthly base should be included in the Stripe Billing Portal anyway (at least in germany).

But then Billing Portal also has to somehow ask the customer if he wants to cancel at end of the period (e.g. if he wants to use it for another year, but does not want to forget to cancel it) or at the end of the next month.

spice portal Jan 3, 2024, 12:32 PM

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yep, and none of that exists in the product today, it's a feature request

#Jonas Reif