Account Credit: Renewing and Adding Slots with Credit

How Account Credit Is Used

Account credit is money already on your GameGrid account: a refund issued as credit, referral commission, content creator commission, or credit added by our team. Credit cannot be bought. Your credit balance is shown on the Billing page.

Your credit is used first; anything left is charged to your card. That rule applies to these payments:

• renewing a one-time plan,
• adding slots on Manage Plan,
• every automatic renewal of a monthly plan.

A new order is covered under "New Orders" below.

Credit pays the full price including any sales tax or VAT. In the EU and the UK the price already includes VAT; elsewhere, sales tax is worked out from your billing country and ZIP code exactly as it would be at checkout, and your credit pays that total. When your credit covers everything, nothing is charged to your card, and renewing a one-time plan from credit needs no card on file. When you renew or add slots and the part left for the card would be under $0.50, the smallest card payment our payment provider accepts, a little less credit is used so that the card pays $0.50.

Renewing a One-Time Plan

A one-time plan can be renewed once 30 days or less of it are left. Until then its card on the Billing page shows the date it is paid until and the date Renew appears, for example "Paid until Sat 12 Dec, 7:56 PM CST. Renew appears on Thu 12 Nov, 7:56 PM CST, when 30 days or less are left." Plan dates are written in your own time zone (the one saved on your profile, or your browser's) with the time, the same way the Dashboard shows them; hover over a date to see it in UTC. If the plan has already ended, Renew is there straight away.

When Renew is shown, click it on the plan on the Billing page. A window shows what the renewal costs and how it is paid before anything happens. When your credit will be used and sales tax or VAT applies, it opens with the price before tax and a button, Review payment; press it and the window works out the tax once and shows the exact total and how it is paid:

• If your credit covers it, the window says so, for example "Renew Plan 7 for $25.98 from your credit (incl. $1.98 tax). Credit after: $724.52." Click Confirm and the plan is renewed straight away. There is no card charge and no checkout page.
• If your credit covers only part, the window shows the split, for example "$10.00 from your credit, $15.98 by card". Continue takes you to the secure checkout page for the card part only. The credit is set aside for that checkout and is taken only when the card payment goes through. If you leave the checkout or the payment fails, nothing is taken from your credit and it is free again within about 30 minutes.

Renewing adds 30 days to the end of your current period, or 30 days from today if it has already ended, and you pay for those whole 30 days at your plan's price, including a lifetime discount if your plan was bought with one. You never lose time by renewing: the days you have left are kept and the new 30 days start when they run out. The window shows the date your plan will then run until.

A renewal is priced for the number of slots your plan has when you start it. If you add slots before the renewal's checkout page is paid, the renewal still pays for the slots it was priced for, and that time is shared across all your slots: for example, a renewal priced for 1 slot and paid when the plan has 3 slots adds 10 days for all 3. Our support team is told about it and can sort out the difference with you.

If you open a new checkout page to renew a plan or add slots to it, any older checkout page for that same plan that is still open is closed, so only the newest one can be paid. Any account credit the older page was holding is free again straight away.

To pay by card only, untick "Use my credit first" in the window.

Adding Slots

On Manage Plan, drag the slider to the number of slots you want. When you have credit, the panel shows "Use my credit first", ticked by default, and the button says how you will pay, for example "Add 1 Slot — $34.87 from credit" or "Add 1 Slot — $10.00 credit + $24.87 card".

• On a one-time plan, credit that covers the charge adds the slots straight away after you confirm. Credit that covers part sends the rest to the secure checkout page. While you move the slider, the panel shows the price before sales tax or VAT and the button says "Review payment": press it to see the exact total and how it will be paid, then confirm. The tax is worked out once, when you review, and the payment uses that figure; if the total has changed by the time you confirm, nothing is paid and you can review again.
• On a one-time plan your end date does not change: you pay for the added slots only, for the days left until that date (the price per slot × the days left ÷ 30, at least $0.50). The slots you already have lose no time. If the plan has already ended, renew it first, then add slots. If the plan is renewed after you open the checkout page for the slots and before you pay it, the new slots get the days they were priced for and your plan's end date is set so that you have exactly the extra time you paid for (it stays later than the old end date); our support team is told. Slots bought on two checkout pages at once are both added, in whichever order you pay them. If your plan ran out before the checkout page for the slots was paid, the slots are not added and your plan is left as it is; our support team refunds that payment.
• On a monthly plan, the charge today is worked out by our payment provider, tax included. Your credit pays first and the rest is charged to your saved card when you confirm. If the change does not go through, your credit is returned.

Monthly Renewals

When a monthly plan renews, your credit is used first on that renewal, against the total including any sales tax or VAT, and anything left is charged to your card. If your credit covers the whole renewal, your card is not charged. If a renewal invoice is cancelled, the credit used on it is returned to your balance.

New Orders

When you order a new plan, credit is used only if you tick "Use account credit" on the order page. Under the price breakdown, the order page tells you in one sentence whether a card will be asked.

• A one-time plan your credit pays in full. If your credit covers the whole price, after any discount code and including any sales tax or VAT, the plan is paid straight from your credit when you press the order button. On the order page the first press of the order button is "Review payment": it shows the exact total with any tax and pays nothing, and the next press, "Complete One-Time Purchase", pays. There is no checkout page and no card. You go on to set up your server on the new plan, you get the purchase email, and a receipt is on the Billing page. If the tax cannot be worked out at that moment, nothing is taken from your credit; try again in a minute or pay by card. Your credit can only pay in full if it covers the price plus the tax: if it covers the price but not the tax, the order goes to the checkout page as described below.
• A monthly plan whose first month your credit covers. The checkout page opens, but it asks for no card, because the first payment is $0. Because the tax can change with the address you enter there, the card is skipped only when your credit also covers a small margin above the estimated total (the larger of 5% and $0.50); with less than that, the page asks for a card, which is charged only if the tax comes out higher. Your credit is used first on every renewal after that. If you have no card on file and your credit will not cover a renewal, we email you 5 days before it so you can add a card or more credit. A renewal that cannot be paid is handled like any failed payment: see "Payment Failures: Causes and Solutions".
• Credit that covers only part of the order. Under Terms of Service section 4.2, your credit pays first, against the order's total including any sales tax or VAT, and your card pays only the rest. The tax is worked out on the order's full price, after any discount code, and your credit does not lower it. For a one-time plan, the checkout page then asks your card for the part your credit does not pay. If that part would be under $0.50, the smallest card payment our payment provider accepts, a little less credit is used so that the card pays $0.50. For a monthly plan, your credit is put on your balance with our payment provider just before the checkout page opens, and they take it off the first invoice after tax; anything the invoice did not use is returned to your account credit, and if the first payment fails or the checkout expires unpaid, all of it is. While one checkout is using your credit you cannot start another with it: finish that one, or wait for it to expire (up to 30 minutes), and try again.
• A discount code. The code comes off the order's price before tax. For a one-time plan, if your credit covers the whole total after the code, including any sales tax or VAT, the plan is paid straight from your credit with the code applied: no checkout page and no card, and the confirmation says how much the code took off. If the code cannot be used (it has run out or expired, you have used it already, or it is applied to another checkout you started), the order is refused and nothing is taken from your credit or your card. If your credit covers only part of the order, the checkout page applies the code and your card pays the rest. A monthly plan bought with a code still opens the checkout page, where the code is applied. A code that lasts for the life of the plan (every content creator code does) also comes off each renewal of a one-time plan, at the same percentage it gave when you bought the plan; a code for the first payment only does not.

Disputes and Chargebacks

If you dispute a payment to GameGrid with your bank or card issuer, the disputed amount is taken from your credit balance when the dispute opens. If you have less credit than that, your balance goes below zero: a negative balance is an amount owed to GameGrid, and credit added to your account later pays it off first. If the dispute is closed in GameGrid's favour, or closed without the money being taken, the whole amount is put back. If the bank decides in your favour, it stays deducted. The Transactions tab lists the deduction as "Chargeback". Terms of Service section 4.8 sets this out from version 1.1.4.

Where to See It

Every payment from credit appears on the Billing page. Credit Balance lists it as "Used", and the Transactions tab lists it as "Credit Used" with a description that starts "Paid from credit" and says what it paid for, including the tax.

Credit cannot be withdrawn or paid out to a card or bank account. It can only be used towards GameGrid services. Terms of Service sections 4.2 and 4.3 set out these rules.