Billing

Credit is money held on your FastComments account, in your billing currency. It is applied automatically to your future invoices, including subscription renewals and Flex usage, before your card is charged.

Credit is prepayment, not a discount or a points system. Adding $50 of credit means your next $50 of invoices are paid from that credit instead of your card. The balance is held as a credit on your account in Stripe, our payment processor, and it stays on your account until an invoice uses it.

Some reasons to keep a credit balance:

• Prepay for a period in advance, for example when a finance department prefers one larger payment to a monthly card charge.
• Keep a buffer on a Flex plan so a busy month is covered before the invoice arrives.
• Pay from a card once, then let renewals draw from the balance.

Where to Find It

Open My Account -> Billing Info and click Manage Credits, next to View Invoices and Invoice Settings. This opens the Credits page, which shows your current Credit balance, the Add credit form, and your Past top-ups.

Once you have a balance, the Billing Info page also shows a Credit balance line so you can see it without opening the Credits page.

Who Can Add Credit

Only the Account Owner or a user with the Billing Admin permission can add credit, the same users who can change the plan or payment method. Other administrators do not see the Manage Credits button. See Updating Administrator Permissions for how to grant the permission.

Top-ups are charged to the payment method saved on your account. If you have not saved a card yet, the Credits page shows Add a payment method first with a Go to billing button. Save a card on the Billing Info page, then come back.

To add credit:

1. Open My Account -> Billing Info and click Manage Credits.
2. Under Add credit, pick one of the preset amounts, or choose Other amount and enter your own.
3. Click the Add button. It shows the amount you chose, for example Add $25.00.
4. If your bank asks you to confirm the payment, complete the check in the window that opens.

When the payment goes through, the page shows Credit added with your new balance, and the top-up appears in Past top-ups as Credited. Click Add more to top up again.

Amounts and Limits

The presets are 10, 25, 50, and 100 in your billing currency. A custom amount can be anything from 5 to 10,000 per top-up, and the exact limits for your currency are shown under the form. For currencies without decimal places, such as Japanese yen, the presets and limits are one hundred times larger so they represent roughly the same money.

Top-ups are always in your account's billing currency, the same currency as your invoices. The page tells you which currency will be charged.

Bank Confirmation (3D Secure)

Some banks require you to confirm an online payment, usually through your banking app or a one-time code. If yours does, a confirmation window opens after you click Add. Your card is only charged, and your balance only updated, after the bank approves.

If you close the page before finishing the confirmation, the top-up is recorded as Pending. The next time you open the Credits page we check the payment's status with Stripe and mark it Credited or Failed accordingly. If the bank does not approve the payment, the page shows Your bank did not approve the payment. Try again, or use a different card. and nothing is charged.

Declined Cards

If your card is declined, the page shows Your card was declined. Check your card on the billing page, or try another card. Nothing is charged, your balance does not change, and the attempt is listed in Past top-ups as Failed. Update the card on the Billing Info page and try again.

To protect your card, an account can make a limited number of top-up attempts per hour. If you see Too many top-up attempts. Wait a while and try again., wait and retry later.

Payments are processed by Stripe. FastComments never stores your card details.

You do not have to do anything to use your credit. When an invoice is created for your account, the available credit is applied to it first, and only the remainder, if any, is charged to your card.

This covers every invoice FastComments issues for your account:

• Monthly or yearly subscription renewals.
• Flex usage charges, billed at the end of each period.
• Plan changes that produce an invoice.

If your balance is larger than the invoice, the whole invoice is paid from credit and the rest stays on your account for the next one. If the balance is smaller, the credit is used up and your card is charged the difference.

Credit is applied to invoices only. It does not change your plan, your limits, or the prices you pay, and it is not a spend limit. Flex spend limits are configured separately on the Billing Info page.

Each invoice shows the credit that was applied to it. You can review invoices from View Invoices on the Billing Info page.

Checking Your Balance

The Credits page always shows your current Credit balance. When it is above zero, the Billing Info page shows a Credit balance line as well.

Refunds

Credit is prepayment for your FastComments account and is used by your future invoices. If you need help with a balance you no longer need, contact support.

The Past top-ups table at the bottom of the Credits page lists your most recent top-ups, newest first, with the Date, Amount, and Status of each one. Before your first top-up it reads No top-ups yet.

Each top-up has one of three statuses:

• Credited: the payment succeeded and the amount was added to your balance.
• Pending: the payment was started but has not finished, usually because a bank confirmation was not completed. Pending top-ups are checked against Stripe the next time the Credits page is opened and move to Credited or Failed.
• Failed: the card was declined or the bank did not approve the payment. Nothing was charged and your balance did not change.

The table records top-ups made from this page. Invoices paid from credit are shown with the invoices themselves, under View Invoices on the Billing Info page.

Credit is for accounts that FastComments bills directly through Stripe. The Manage Credits button is not shown for:

• Accounts billed externally, for example by invoice outside the dashboard, or sub-accounts whose billing is handled by a parent account.
• Accounts installed through the Shopify App Store, which are billed through Shopify.
• Accounts installed through the BigCommerce App Marketplace, which are billed through BigCommerce.

For these accounts, payment is managed on the platform that bills you, and there is no balance on FastComments to top up.

Currency Mismatch

Your credit balance is held in one currency, the one your account has already been invoiced in. If the invoice currency in Invoice Settings has been changed to a different currency, the Credits page explains the mismatch and does not let you add credit until the currencies agree. Set the invoice currency back in Invoice Settings, or contact support to switch currencies.