Multi Month Access Pricing / Rebills

[Lee]

I have a quick question about how you folks setup your rebills on 3/6/9 month memberships to your sites...

Lets say a surfer joins for 3 months, when rebill time comes around, have you found that rebilling for another 3 months has worked best or, rebilling for single month access?

For example, i'm currently changing our 3 month membership price from $89.95 down to $69.95, now, at the end of 3 months should i be rebilling them $69.95 or $29.95 monthly?

Regards,

Lee

[djdez]

I find that at least half of the customers that choose multimonth option do it not because of the value in the deal, but that they don't want to have a recurring membership. they'd rather buy a 3-month membership than have to fool around with cancelling memberships.

i would also think recurring multimonth memberships would lead to chargebacks too. all of a sudden there is a a charge for $70 on their credit card that they haven't seen in 3 months.

i think its best to not be greedy. if they want to continue their membership after it expires they will sign up again.

[basschick]

i never thought of it, but we never had any changebacks on our multimonth memberships. our very few chargebacks were on montly memberships. i wonder why that is...

lee - i'm a firm believer in recurring 3 month memberships. i always have a very obvious cancel link in the member so that if they want to cancel, they can.

djdez - if 3 month members join so they won't be bothered, seems to me that would make them less likely to join again.

[djdez]

djdez - if 3 month members join so they won't be bothered, seems to me that would make them less likely to join again.

That's not what I said and its not the same at all.

If they don't won't to signup again they won't. If you auto-renew someone at $70 who had no intention on renwing I guarantee they're more inclined to charge back then if it was just $30.

Just because they don't want to have to fool around with having to cancel or remember to cancel their membership doesn't mean they won't signup again if they want to renew for another 3-months.

Quite frankly I also think its unethical to auto-renw multi-month memberships. It would be different if you send a notice to the customer prior. Every magazine subscription I've had they sent me a notice stating that my membership is about to expire and asking if I want to renew. There is a reason for that.

[djdez]

double post

[tyrain]

Quite frankly I also think its unethical to auto-renw multi-month memberships. It would be different if you send a notice to the customer prior. Every magazine subscription I've had they sent me a notice stating that my membership is about to expire and asking if I want to renew. There is a reason for that.

I tend to agree with you. Most are used to monthly charges, allowing them to cancel when they get their bill, kicking themselves for forgetting.

I suspect most buying 3-months would assume it being non-recurring, not bothering to read the full details in the excitement of the moment. That could lead to very expensive chargebacks, bringing your ratio into a danger zone.