How do I change my membership plan prices?

Note: If the plan Billing Period is Formula, please do not proceed with the following instructions. Instead, contact us and we will update your plan(s).

Many organizations update their rates on a regular basis to account for inflation, pay for new member benefits, or to provide better value for their members. SilkStart makes this easy to do. Keep reading to understand how you can change your plan prices, and how this affects your members.

How can I change the price of an existing plan?

From your SilkStart admin panel, go to Settings > Plans and click on the name of the plan you wish to change. Change the price or terms, and press Save. Your changes will take place immediately for any members who purchase the plan for the first time, or who manually renew in the future.

Note: If you have set up expiry reminder emails for your plan, the {plan_price} merge tag will not reflect the revised price of the plan. This is because the merge tag is going to pull the price that the member paid for that plan last time they signed up or renewed and not the price under Settings > Plans.

This means you will either have to replace the {plan_price} merge tag with the actual price of the plan or within the email mention that the prices displayed are from the last membership.

What happens to members who already have this plan?

If you change the name of a plan, this will be reflected on the account of every member who has or had this plan.

If you have used the "Offer Plan" option for any user, the offered price will not change, even if the plan's normal rates have changed.

Changing the price or billing period of a plan will not automatically change the financial status or expiry date of any members who already have this plan:

• Members on Manual Renewal: When these members log in to renew their memberships manually, they will be able to purchase this plan again with the new terms/price.
  
  For example, let's say member John Smith has an active membership of $100/year, expiring on December 31st. On November 12th, you change the price of this plan to $200/year. After John expires on December 31st, he will need to log in to your site to renew. On the Join page, he will be able to select this plan at the new rate of $200/year.
  
  
• Members on Auto-Renewal: Members with recurring billing subscriptions will not be affected by a price change until their cycle is terminated and they log in to your website to manually renew. When signing up, these members had agreed to a set recurring fee that will not be changed without their consent.
  
  For example, let's say member Adam Brown has an active monthly recurring membership of $10/month, billed on the last day of every month. On November 12th, you change the price of this plan to $20/month. On November 30th, Adam will be automatically charged $10. This is because he agreed to a recurring billing cycle at the time the plan was priced at $10/month. Adam will only pay the new rate of $20/month if his recurring subscription is terminated or canceled and he renews through your website to opt-in to the new pricing.

When should I update rates, and when should I make new plans?

It is not necessary to create new plans every year, even if your rates increase annually.

When you make a substantial change to your memberships (eg. a change to the plan's name, price, and member benefits) you may consider creating a new plan.

You can add a new plan at any time. Creating a new plan does not affect members who already have membership in your organization.