Subscription billing alignment via myAccount

Overview

2Checkout myAccount offers billing charges alignment (or co-termination) capabilities to customers owning two or more active subscriptions for different products acquired from you, with unsynchronized expiration/renewal dates. The co-termination process enables the proration of subscriptions, setting a single renewal date for multiple items.

2Checkout renews subscriptions sharing the same co-termination date as part of a single order. As a direct result, following the renewal process, 2Checkout issues a single invoice to customers.

Aligning subscriptions is a customer-side feature. 2Checkout does not align subscription billing cycles automatically.

Requirements

1. Subscriptions must be associated with different products purchased from the same company.
2. Subscriptions must be associated with different products purchased by the same customer (defined through Avangate Customer Reference (ID) and/or AV_CUSTOMERID External Customer ID). This means that you need to aggregate subscriptions under the same customer.
3. Subscriptions status must be Active or Past due (in the grace period), but not expired or disabled.
4. Recurring billing (auto-renewal system) needs to be enabled for subscriptions.
5. 2Checkout aligns subscription expiration/renewal dates chronologically. Shoppers can align the next recurring billing date of a subscription that’s renewing on March 10 with one that’s renewing on March 11, but not the other way around.
6. Subscriptions need to share the same billing cycle.
7. Co-termination is available only for subscriptions associated to products for which customers used a credit/debit card for the initial purchase. Supported cards: VISA, MasterCard, AMEX and Discovery.
8. Transactions for the initial orders which generated the subscriptions must share the same currency.
9. Subscriptions for which billing involves both a base, recurring cost and a dynamic expense component (usage) incurred for metered resources consumed cannot be aligned with other subscriptions.
10. This feature does not work for imported subscriptions.

Billing alignment flow

Customers can align subscription billing charges via myAccount. Let's assume that Customer A has acquired Subscription 1 on May 31 and Subscription 2 on June 1. Both are monthly subscriptions set to renew automatically.

1. Customer A logins into https://secure.2checkout.com/myaccount.
2. Selects the My Products tab https://secure.2checkout.com/myaccount/my_products/?.
3. Clicks the Align invoice date link for Subscription 1.

1. 2Checkout displays a list of eligible subscriptions (items that match the requirements listed above), and Customer A selects Subscription 2.
2. 2Checkout provides details of the alignment. The process involves extending Subscription 1 to align it with Subscription 2, whose upcoming billing is the same as the co-termination date of the two items. To enable the extension, Customer A needs to pay the costs of the extra interval added to the lifetime of Subscription 1.
3. When clicking the Continue button, 2Checkout redirects Customer A  to a shopping cart where he/she can make the payment.

Aligning billing charges for multiple subscriptions

In case customers need to align additional items beyond the first two subscriptions, all they need to do is follow the steps enumerated above, but they can do so only one subscription at a time. Provided that all requirements are met and the 2Checkout system identifies eligible items, additional subscriptions can be aligned with those already sharing the same co-termination date. 

IPN and LCN

2Checkout sends out Instant Payment Notifications for transaction that aligns subscription charge dates. Following the alignment process, 2Checkout provides IPNs for transactions made when renewing multiple subscriptions.

2Checkout sends standalone License Change Notifications for each standalone subscription when updates occur, even for aligned items.

Co-termination costs

While shoppers won't be charged extra for configuring common expiry dates (co-termination dates) for their ongoing subscriptions, they will need to pay the costs of prolonging the lifetime of the aligned subscription.

The alignment charge is the prorated price that customers need to pay to cover the costs of the interval of time that the subscription is prolonged in order to align its billing cycle to that of the target subscription that provides the co-termination date.

The initial price displayed to shoppers in myAccount represents the cost estimate of the transaction and does not include taxes. The final prorated price, including taxes, is displayed in the shopping cart, as customers advance through the stages of the co-termination process.

Renewal notifications

2Checkout sends out standalone renewal notifications for each subscription, regardless of the fact that their billing cycles are aligned or not.

Follow-ups

2Checkout sends follow-up messages for all subscriptions with the same co-termination date, provided that their billing cycles were aligned.

Grace period

Per-subscription or global Grace period settings are not impacted by this feature, even for subscription whose billing charges were aligned.

FAQ

1. Can trial subscriptions be aligned?

This feature does not apply to trial subscriptions.

2. What happens if a subscription previously aligned with another/others is upgraded?

The billing charge alignment will no longer work, and each subscription will be renewed as a standalone item by the 2Checkout system.

3. What happens a subscription that I previously aligned with another/others is renewed with a new product version?

The billing charge alignment continues to work as before.