Recurring Billing
PayBru uses recurring billing via Paystack to keep memberships active without requiring members to manually pay each month.
How Recurring Payments Work
When you subscribe to a creator's tier, your payment is processed through Paystack - a trusted South African payment gateway. Paystack securely stores your payment method and charges it automatically on each billing date.
The process is straightforward:
- You subscribe and make your first payment via Paystack.
- PayBru creates a monthly billing plan on Paystack and schedules your next payment.
- On each billing date, the amount is charged automatically.
- You receive a confirmation and invoice for each payment.
Pending transactions that are not completed expire after 30 minutes. If your payment session times out, simply start a new checkout.
Billing Cycles
All PayBru memberships follow a monthly billing cycle (hardcoded as monthly in the Paystack plan). Your billing date is set to the same day each month based on when you first subscribed.
| Subscription date | Next billing date |
|---|---|
| 5 March | 5 April |
| 15 January | 15 February |
| 31 January | 28 February (end of month) |
If your subscription date falls on the 29th, 30th, or 31st, billing will occur on the last day of shorter months.
Subscription Durations
While billing is processed monthly, you can subscribe for different durations depending on what the creator offers:
- 1 month: standard monthly subscription
- 3 months: quarterly, often with a discount
- 6 months: half-yearly, often with a larger discount
- 12 months: annual, typically the best value
Multi-month subscriptions are still billed monthly via Paystack, but the commitment and any applicable discounts are locked in for the chosen duration.
Automatic Renewals
The auto-renewal system runs every hour, checking for memberships that have reached the end of their current billing period (CurrentPeriodEnd). When your membership is due for renewal:
- The system automatically charges your saved payment method via Paystack.
- If successful, your membership continues seamlessly into the next period.
Free tier memberships auto-renew indefinitely with no payment required.
When you cancel:
- Your membership status changes to Canceled.
- Your membership remains active until the end of the current billing period.
- You will not be charged again after cancellation.
- Once the paid period expires, your status changes to Ended and you lose access to gated content.
Payment Methods
All payments are processed through Paystack and support:
| Method | Details |
|---|---|
| Card payments | Visa or Mastercard (debit or credit) |
| Bank transfer / EFT | Direct bank payment via Paystack |
| Mobile money | Supported mobile money options via Paystack |
Payment Timing
Payments are processed as part of the hourly auto-renewal cycle. In most cases, the charge and confirmation happen within minutes. Occasionally, payment processing may take a few hours depending on your bank or Paystack.
Make sure your payment method is up to date to avoid interruptions. You can update your payment details at any time in your account settings.