That patreon charges on the first of the month is a total nightmare. Why the hell do you do something as dumb as this???
Nobody does this in the real world, if you sign up for auto insurance or rent, you pay on the day that you signed up, every month, that is how to do that. I have people sign up on the 25th of the month, I have charge upfront (because I have tons of people that would otherwise just swindle and get stuff for free), and people are pissed and quit when they get overcharged. And yes, they DO GET OVERCHARGED if they get charged right again on the 1st, after only 5 days. I hate to appologize for that and have lost these patreons for good, even if I refund it.
Why do you have to be so difficult? Can’t you just charge the way that everybody does in the world?
I have to warn my patreons to not sign up at the end of the month and can’t post content that would make people sign up.
I also have just seen that a person signed up on the 28th and quit right again (who can blame them?) but now I can’t believe that for paying full price, they will only have 3 days of access? WTF?
It is obvious that that person should have access till the 28th of next month, that is what they paid for.
Why is your system so badly broken?
It’s because a lot of creators rely on this method of pure monthly rotation.
However there’s recent news of them trying to work out a method where those who need the 1st of the month payment can have it, and those who want the anniversary billing like other subscriptions can have it.
No updates on that in a while but there have been talks about this some months ago and what they were hoping to accomplish so hang tight and hopefully there will be some updates soon. You can find info about the talks on this if you search “anniversary billing” here or on the discord. Possibly even a link to the video where this was discussed.
Anyways, just wanted to pop in here as one of the folks that are different from you that that relies on 1st of the month payments for what I offer.
Why do you rely on the 1st? What is the problem receiving money any other day of the months? How do you justify overcharging your patreons? Don’t they get angry and quit? Wouldn’t you if you joined on the 30th and the next day get charged again and realizes: Yes, you were double charged, what you pledged now had been doubled without your consent, so the person you are dealing with is not trustworthy and will rip you off?
I would love to hear your use case, because in mine it makes 0% sense.
In any case, if it was possible to chose it or not, that would be the best and have it default on the 1st, so that if people don’t change it, that is what they will get. But the people that have a strong reason to do it like me can do it.
That post about it coming in 2021 was a year ago, we can be pretty sure that Patreon was not serious about implementing it and they dropped it. Probably time to look for a better service that actually listens to their users. I mean it should be in their own self interest: They are losing a lot of money by my patreons constantly cancelling and never coming back, having been burned.
Some of my rewards rely on knowing all those who’ve paid at the same time to make an order in a reasonable time frame and also, I dont have pay upfront enabled so no one gets overcharged. However, creators I know who do have it enabled seem to have this problem less because they put extra notices about the dates in thier information/tiers/etc and that the payment is to give historical access to content. Every audience is different but those folks i know and talk to about patreon stuff within my circles, dont seem to have this issue much. It is also stated on the page when you join, when the current charge happens and when the next one comes out, for pay upfront pages. I know many fail to read this, but it IS there. Patreon needs to make it more noticable for sure.
There was a community connect meeting about payment earlier this year (Feb 22nd I think?) that was all about anniversary billing and other payment changes. There is a whole convo about this in #billingsolutions on the patreon Discord but yeah we’ve been asking for further updates for a while as there has been none and many of us are worried about our livelihoods.
I agree and hope they implement the options. Patreon has never been a “one size fits all” and options are nessesary.
The billing situation is complicated because after reading the long discussion thread I totally see where people are coming from on both sides of this topic.
I definitely “get” the perception people have of being “double charged” if you sign-up at the very end of the month.
But I’m not sure what the answer is because anniversary billing is great if your patrons only support you on Patreon and no one else.
Anniversary billing becomes a nightmare for your patrons and for Patreon if your patrons support a bunch of different creators.
Some of my patrons only support me, but some support 8 to 10 other creators.
Do they want 10 charges from Patreon on their credit card every month? Probably not.
My patrons are pretty savvy, but not everyone is, and I suspect Patreon would be getting a TON of angry support messages from people who think that second and third and fourth charge each month is an extra charge or overcharge or “double charge.”
Someone suggested that prorating the membership fee as the month goes on might be a good option, and someone else pointed out that doing so would mean anyone could signup on the 31st for a fraction of the cost, download ALL of her material, and then cancel before the next charge.
Some people depend on the charge being on the 1st because they send physical rewards and need to know how many to make and who they’re going to that month.
It’s actually a fairly complicated problem that seems easy to fix if you only look at it through the lens of the way you use Patreon. (Which I have to admit is what I did at first when this topic came up!)
Because we publish a monthly magazine. If someone pledges on the 15th or 29th, they expect to get the current issue (instant gratification) and we can deliver it because the payment for it is in hand. The next charge on the first gives them another issue, so they see two rewards, two payments. When they are no longer Active supporters, I don’t have to worry about sending them anything else. All paid up and delivered.
Anniversary billing complicates matters because we can’t do instant gratification and have to track people for another month AFTER they’ve ended support. Why? Because if they pledge on the 2nd (or 10th or 29th) and I send them the current issue, I won’t have payment in hand when the new issue is published. They expect that issue on the first and if it doesn’t show, “I screwed them,” so it has to start with the next issue. AND THEN, starting with the next issue means that I still owe them one after they are no longer Active. It’s even worse with print rewards because they can sometimes have paid TWICE before the first reward has even arrived. That’s even worse optics.
I have experience with both models and can tell you that I receive many more complaints (and angrier ones) with anniversary billing than I do with first of the month billing. It’s not even in the same ballpark. Being forced to switch would be extremely disruptive to our business.
Neither model is perfect for everyone, which is why so many of us have lobbied for the option to choose whichever one is optimal for our individual circumstances.
i think the most elegant solution to the double charge issue was a pop-up that appears on and after the 15th of the month asking the patron if they’re sure they want to continue, knowing they will be charged again on the 1st. if they select “no” then they enter their email to get a reminder at the start of the next month.
with the pop-up people can’t claim they don’t know. the reminder directly addresses the problem of attracting and retaining new patrons. bim bam boom
bonus: its also the least amount of effort
Hey there, I want to thank everyone who has commented on this thread. It goes a long way back, and was kicked off by a former Patreon community manager asking for product feedback. We asked, and you were honest about your pain points. Thank you.
The product team gets regular updates from our community team about product feedback that comes up here and in Discord, so everything in this thread has been discussed in product planning meetings over the past few years. While we’ve made progress on some of the requests here, we still have a long way to go to address others. I’m happy to report that notifications and content organization, two pain points that came up over and over in this thread, are actively being worked on. Stay tuned in the coming months for updates to these areas.
I’m going to close the thread now as part of this project, but want you to know that your feedback has all been collected and discussed and we’re working to act on it.
Patreon has never been a “one size fits all” and options are nessesary.