Recurring Payments – Adjusting Pricing

When you create a subscription, once it’s created, it’s managed by the payment gateway so EDD is limited on what changes can be made once the subscription is created. With that said, some payment gateways do allow you to make certain changes. This article covers what’s possible via Stripe and PayPal. It’s possible some of these methods will work with other payment gateways but we can’t guarantee it nor do we have details for those payment gateways at this time.

Note: Each of the options is different for each payment gateway. If instructions are not provided for a specific gateway, it means that option does not exist.

Adjust the price of your subscription (for all customers):

Subscription pricing can only be adjusted on a per customer basis, see options below.

Decrease the price of your subscription (for a single customer):

Stripe

It’s possible to decrease the price of a subscription for a period of time or indefinitely, by following these steps.

1. In Stripe, create a Coupon.
   1. For a one time discount, set the Duration to Once
   2. For a permanent price reduction, set the Duration to Forever
   3. You can also specify a specific number of months (for example 6 month price reduction).
2. Navigate to the subscription in Stripe (Click the Profile ID in EDD’s subscription details).
3. Click “Edit Subscription”.
4. Click “Add coupon” to add the coupon created in Step 1.
5. Once the price is set, click “Update Subscription”.

The next renewal will charge at the newly adjusted rate.

PayPal

1. Navigate to the subscription in PayPal (Click the Profile ID in EDD’s subscription).
2. Click “Change” at the bottom of the subscription details.
3. Set the new price in the Amount Due option.
4. Save when complete

The next renewal will charge at the newly adjusted rate.

Increase the price of an upcoming renewal payment

Stripe

Stripe does not allow you to alter the price of an active subscription. However, you can adjust the tax amount. In the event you need to start charging tax, this would allow you to do so.

1. Navigate to the subscription in Stripe (Click the Profile ID in EDD’s subscription details).
2. Click “Edit Subscription”.
3. Click “Add default tax” to add a tax amount to the subscription.
   1. Additional tax rates can be added in Stripe by navigating to Billing  → Tax rates.
4. Once the price is set, click “Update Subscription”.

The next renewal charge is at the newly adjusted rate.

PayPal

In the event you need to increase a subscription’s price, you should be able to do so through a customer’s PayPal subscription. Please refer to PayPal support for details, but in most cases, you should be able to increase pricing by up to 20%.

1. Navigate to the subscription in PayPal (Click the Profile ID in EDD’s subscription).
2. Click “Change” at the bottom of the subscription details.
3. Set the new price in the Amount Due option and/or Tax box.
4. Save when complete.

The next renewal will charge at the newly adjusted rate.

Skip a renewal payment / extend a license

Stripe

There is not a specific option to skip a payment, however, you can add a 100% discount (duration of once or a specific number of months – see Decrease the price of your subscription above for instructions).

Pause a subscription

Pausing a subscription is not currently possible through EDD or directly through the payment gateway. With Stripe you can apply a coupon code for the duration that you want the pause the subscription for. Once Stripe successfully renews, the subscription and license will update. Note, this may not prevent your customer from accessing their product.

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FAQ

Why doesn’t EDD have these features built into the plugin?

There are a number of reasons for this. What features we can develop depends on the payment gateway’s API, and some are more limited than others. Additionally, in most cases we only include features that work for the majority of payment gateways so if a particular feature only works with one payment gateway, it will likely not get implemented.