Visa trial subscription changes

Visa has some new requirements around subscriptions that have free or discounted trial periods going into effect April 18, 2020. (Yes, on Saturday. Really, Visa?) If you don't sell a subscription with a promotional period, you can skip this one. Just know Simplero has your back, and go watch Dadosaur eat the Easter cake.

What do you need to do?

Not much! We have you covered. Just make sure your posted terms & conditions include your cancelation policy.

What has changed?

• The "Cancel at any time" text on the order form now links to this guide on how to cancel a subscription. (Visa requires that the steps to cancel be presented at the point of purchase.)
• New notification emails:
  • When a customer signs up for a trial, they get an email showing when they'll be charged, similar to a receipt. If the trial period is discounted, not free, this information is included in the receipt instead of a separate email.
  • When a free or discounted trial is renewing at a higher price, the customer gets an email 7 days in advance alerting them to the impending charge.
  • If a subscription renewal is about to happen and it has been more than 6 months since the last charge, the customer gets an email 7 days in advance alerting them to the impending charge.
• These notifications aren't optional. The previous "Never automatically send receipts for this product" option is now "Only when required by law or payment network regulations"
• The first non-discounted charge in a subscription gets tagged with * END TRIAL on the customer's credit card statement. So far, Stripe is the only payment processor we support that allows dynamically setting the statement descriptor, but Visa has just delayed this requirement by a year, so hopefully other processors will catch up by then.