Recurring Billing FAQ

Below is a list of our most frequently asked questions. If you do not find the information you need below, please contact Customer Service and we will get back to you shortly.

1. What is Recurring Billing?

ClickBank recurring billing consists of subscriptions. Subscriptions allow you to sell and promote products and services, for example software licenses and membership sites, where customers receive ongoing value.

For more information about ClickBank recurring billing, click here.

2. How do I set up my account for recurring billing products?

All accounts are automatically enabled for recurring billing products. For more information about the account setup process, go to the vendor Get Started page.

3. Can I offer more than one recurring billing product per account?

Yes - you can offer up to 500 products total per account. You can offer only standard products, only recurring billing products, or a combination of both for a total of 500 products per account.

4. Where do I specify the terms for a recurring billing subscription?

In addition to standard product attributes, the terms related to recurring billing subscriptions are defined below.

Initial Price - The suggested retail price the customer pays for the initial purchase of the subscription. The minimum initial price is $4.95.
Rebill Price - The suggested retail price the customer pays for each subsequent payment for the duration of the subscription. The minimum rebill price is $7.95.
Frequency - The timeframe for which rebilling will occur (i.e. bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually). The initial frequency allowed for recurring billing is monthly.
Duration - The total number of times a customer is billed, including the initial payment and all rebills (i.e. 2-99).
Trial Period - The number of days before the second bill will occur. If a trial period is selected, the initial payment period equals the number of days selected as the trial period. The frequency selected will apply to the rest of the subscription. For example, a subscription offering a two week trial period with a duration of 65 monthly payments will have one two week trial period and 64 monthly rebills. The trial period timeframe cannot exceed 31 days.

5. Is the return policy any different for recurring billing subscriptions?

No, the return policy remains the same for all products. ClickBank's return policy for both standard and recurring billing products is as follows:

ClickBank will, at its discretion, allow for the return or replacement of any defective product within 60 days from the date of purchase. For recurring billing products, returns for more than one payment may be provided if requested within the standard 60 day return period. After 60 days all sales are final.

However, keep in mind that once a refund is processed for a recurring billing product, the remaining rebills are cancelled and no further charges are made to the customer.

6. When can a customer cancel their recurring billing product?

Customers can cancel their recurring billing product at any time during the rebill schedule. Canceling a recurring billing product does not generate a refund.

7. Once a customer cancels their recurring billing product, how will I know to stop sending them the product?

ClickBank will send an email to the email address listed in the vendor's account for every cancellation.

Within your account we provide a summary of any recurring billing products. To find this information, log in to your account, select the "Reporting" tab, and then go to "Analytics." If ClickBank has sold any recurring billing products for which you were the vendor or the affiliate, you will see a link under a section called "Recurring Billing Subscriptions." Click on "Click here to view details on your rebill product subscriptions" for details.

8. What forms of payment are available for my recurring billing products?

Currently, recurring billing products can be purchased using credit/debit cards and PayPal.

9. Can the payment for each rebill in a subscription be larger than the initial payment?

Yes - for subscriptions the rebill amount can be larger than the initial payment amount. The minimum initial price is $4.95, and the minimum rebill price is $7.95.

10. Can I change the suggested retail price of my recurring products?

You cannot alter the initial, or rebill price for any recurring billing product once it has been approved by the Product Approval Team. If you wish to change the initial, or rebill price of a product for future sales, you will need to create a new product in the "My Products" section of your account.

11. How frequently can a customer be rebilled?

For recurring billing subscriptions ClickBank offers bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual recurring billing. With these options, you can offer a wide variety of products and services in the ClickBank marketplace.

12. How do I locate a recurring billing product in the ClickBank marketplace?

In order to accommodate recurring billing, each Marketplace listing will display two new fields. The fields and their descriptions are listed below.

Marketplace Statistic Examples

$/sale: $25.90 | %/sale: 75.0% | %refd: 92.0% | grav: 194.23

To locate recurring billing products, look for products that contain a value in the "future$" statistic.

13. How many commission payments do affiliates earn on a recurring billing products?

Affiliates earn commission for the life of a subscription, which includes the initial payment and all rebills. The commission rate offered at the time of the initial payment remains the same for the rebills. Keep in mind that the initial payment must be equal to or greater than the subsequent rebills. Therefore, the amount affiliates earn for the initial payment may be greater than the amount they earn for each rebill payment. If a recurring billing product or subscription is cancelled, no future commissions will be awarded.

14. Will ClickBank deliver my recurring billing products?

Recurring billing products are handled no differently than any other ClickBank product. The vendor is responsiblefor product delivery based on the terms of the purchase.

15. Can I view all of the recurring billing products in my account?

Yes - If one of your recurring billing products has sold at ClickBank, we provide a summary of any outstanding recurring billing products within your account. To find this information, log in to your account, select the "Reporting" tab, and then go to "Analytics." If ClickBank has sold any recurring billing products for which you were the vendor or the affiliate, you will see a link under a section called "Recurring Billing Subscriptions."

16. Is the recurring billing markup model the same as the standard product markup model?

No. ClickBank purchases standard products, initial subscription payments, and rebills for subscriptions with a price of $40 or more from the vendor at a wholesale price equal to 92.5% of retail, less a $1 stocking charge. Subscriptions where the rebill price is less than $40, ClickBank purchases the rebills for the subscription from the vendor at a wholesale price equal to 90.1% of retail. For affiliate directed sales, the commission percentage is subtracted from the net sale price.

Here is an example of how commissions would be calculated if a vendor offered a 55% commission for a 12 month subscription where the initial payment is $29.95, and the rebill payments are $9.95:

55% Commission on Net Sale: [($29.95 x 92.5%) - $1.00)] x 55% = $14.69

Total Earned by Affiliate for this Subscription: $14.69 + ($4.93 x 11) = $68.92

17. How does monthly billing work?

This section describes "normal timing," "unavailable date timing," and "payment failure process" timing for monthly billing.

a. Normal Timing

The following is an example of normal payment timing:

$30.00 for the first month
$10.00 a month for 11 months

May 1 = $30.00
June 1 = $10.00
July 1 = $10.00
...and so on through April 1 of the following year

b. Unavailable Date Timing

If you have a recurring billing payment scheduled for a day that does not occur in a given month (e.g. the 30th does not occur in February), the bill will occur on the last available day of the month. Thereafter, the payment will occur on the newly established day of the month (see example below).

The following is an example of unavailable date timing:

$10 per month, for 12 months, billed on the 30th

The customer signs up on Jan. 30, and is billed as follows:

Jan. 30 = $10.00
Feb. 28 = $10.00
Mar. 28 = $10.00
...and so on through Dec. 28 of the same year

c. Payment Failure Timing

Unlike many of our competitors, we don't give up after one payment failure. ClickBank understands that scheduled payments may fail for several reasons, including insufficient funds, so we have optimized our recurring billing process to reduce authorization declines and increase your revenue.

Authorization Failures

In the event that customer's credit card cannot support the payment request, we will attempt authorization again three days after the first failure date. After a second failure, we will reattempt four days after the second failure date. After a third failure, we will try once more seven days after the third failure date. A fourth failure will lead to an automatic cancellation of the subscription purchase. We send notifications to the customer and vendor on the final two attempts.

The following is an example of payment failure timing due to an authorization failure:

June 1 = 1st attempt, failed due to insufficient funds
June 4 = 2nd attempt, failed due to insufficient funds
June 8 = 3rd attempt, failed due to insufficient funds (notification sent to the customer and vendor)
June 15 = 4th attempt, if failed, subscription automatically cancelled (notification sent to the customer and vendor)

Card Validation Failure

In the event that customer's credit card becomes invalid, we will deliver the customer up to four notifications requesting new credit card data. The notifications are delivered once a week. If there is no response after the fourth notice, the subscription purchase is automatically canceled. In order to keep the vendor informed, we also send them each notification. If updated credit card data is received from the customer, the rebills from that point forward are executed from the date of the successful authorization.

The following is an example of payment failure timing due to a card validation failure:

The subscription terms are:

$30.00 per payment for 4 months

The Customer signs up on May 1, and is billed as follows:

May 1 = $30.00
June 1 = $30.00
July 1 = Failed attempt to receive payment due to invalid card information, email notification sent to customer
July 4 = Customer provides updated billing information, and the second 2nd attempt is executed, which is successful for $30.00
Subscription complete on Aug. 4 with receipt of $30.00 payment

18. How does bi-weekly billing work?

Bi-weekly occurs once every two weeks and is processed under the same rules as monthly.

19. How does quarterly billing work?

Quarterly billing will occur every 3 months -- not every 90 days. It is processed under the same rules as monthly, but the Unavailable Date Timing is different.

The Unavailable Date Timing for quarterly billing will bill each quarter on the same day as the last successful auth just three months later. If the month is too short to bill on the same day, the bill should occur on the last day of the month it is scheduled for and not be pushed into the next month.

20. How does annual billing work?

Annual billing will occur once a year and is processed under the same rules as monthly.

The one difference between annual and monthly billing is that one week prior to the anniversary of an annual rebill, ClickBank will deliver a notification to the vendor and to the customer informing them that the rebill transaction is about to occur. The notification is delivered regardless of the rebill amount. This notification is an informational message about the customer's upcoming bill and will include instructions on how to update their credit card or email address, if necessary. It will also include instructions on how to cancel their subscription if they so choose. If ClickBank is unable to deliver the pre-billing notification, it will notify the vendor of the delivery failure and cancel the subscription, so the customer will not be rebilled.

21. What are the different statuses of a recurring billing transaction?

The different statuses of a recurring billing transaction are:

Active - the terms of the transaction are not complete.

Completed - the terms of the transaction are complete.

Canceled - the transaction was canceled by the customer.

Authorization Failure - the last rebill was unsuccessful because the customer's credit card failed to authorize. This could be due to insufficient funds. We are attempting to address this issue via the payment failure process

Validation Failure - the last rebill was unsuccessful because the customer's credit card is invalid. We are attempting to address this issue via the payment failure process.