3 months would not be ‘hard ball’, to me. If you didn’t pay your electricity bill or rent, then you would start getting reminders a lot sooner than that! If 3 months were the case, then I would prefer the option to delete my own decliners sooner.
I’ve only a few patrons so far, so this hasn’t been a big issue here, but in my other life as a freelance illustrator, it causes a lot of stress to be chasing non-payers. There, the professional standard is 30 days from date of invoice. Everyone knows that’s the standard, and so even when it goes beyond that, it’s not generally by much. If Patreon is to represent a genuine income stream, then I think it needs to be closer to established practices so that patrons realise that livelihoods are at stake.
I think the process should be something like the following:
-
Patron signs up, gets up to a month of content (assuming no payment up front arrangement)
-
Patron’s card is charged (however many times is standard), then Patreon messages them to say that, unless the problem is remedied in 7 days, then access to content will be suspended.
-
After 7 further days, patron is informed that their patronage will be deleted no later than 30 days from their first declined payment.
So, a month, max, and blocked content after a week.
Or am I being too harsh? 
G.