On this page
- What is auto-renew payment compliance?
- Including an auto-renew payment consent clause in your Terms and Conditions
- Providing consent messaging on your membership form
- Including auto-renew information in renewal reminders
- Obtaining and storing auto-renew payment consent records
- Providing members with instructions on opting-out
- Additional resources
Instructions in this article are provided as a courtesy. Always refer to your country or state’s laws and regulations on auto-renew payment compliance to ensure your organization is compliant. If you require further assistance, please reach out to a legal professional or check out our partnership with Termly, an all-in-one compliance solution.
What is auto-renew payment compliance?
Auto-renew payment compliance means following the laws, regulations, and best practices that govern automatic recurring charges to customers for subscriptions or services. The aim is to be transparent, get proper consent, and offer easy ways to cancel, protecting consumers from deceptive practices and unwanted charges. For your organization, this means providing the necessary compliance mechanisms for members enrolled in auto-renew payments.
Some states, like California and New York, have introduced new laws and regulations around auto-renewal payments. Even if your organization isn't based in a country or state with these regulations, we suggest providing auto-renew compliance mechanisms for your organization and members as a best practice. If your organization accepts automatic recurring member dues, this article offers some best practices and steps to ensure compliance.
Here's what we'll cover:
- How to clearly explain auto-renew payment consent on your membership form.
- How to outline your auto-renew policy in your Terms and Conditions and link to it from your membership form.
- How to add details to your renewal reminder emails about when members will be charged and how much.
- How to keep records of consent by exporting form submissions.
- How to provide instructions on cancelling, or opting-out, of auto-renew payments
Including an auto-renew payment consent clause in your Terms and Conditions
We recommend adding an auto-renew payment clause to your organization's Terms and Conditions, as it's a best practice and required by some state laws and regulations.
This clause should:
- Clearly define the initial term and renewal period
- Specify the notice period for termination and the method of providing such notice
- outline any changes to the terms upon renewal, such as price increases
- Explain how members can opt-out
An automatic renewal clause means that a contract will renew for another term when it ends, unless one party gives notice to end the contract within a certain time. This helps maintain the contractual relationship, but parties must keep track of notification deadlines if they want to end the agreement. Your organization must determine what information to include in the auto-renew clause, which may depend on the country or state your organization is in.
If you need assistance adding an auto-renew compliance clause to your organization's Terms and Conditions, we've partnered with Termly, an all-in-one compliance solution.
Providing consent messaging on your membership form
If your organization encourages members to enroll in auto-renew payments, make sure the Automatically Renew Label field clearly states that checking this box means they consent to auto-renew payments and agree to your consent policy outlined in your Terms and Conditions.
To edit the auto-renew checkbox, follow these steps:
- Go to Forms and select your membership form from the Form List.
- Hover over your membership form and click EDIT.
- We recommend adding a link to your Terms and Conditions at the start of the Membership section, within the label field at the very top. Or, add a label element above or below the Automatically Renew form element and include the link.
- Find the Automatically Renew field on your form and edit its Label to include clear consent messaging and instructions as to where members can access your organization’s Terms and Conditions.
For more information, see Membership forms. If you need assistance adding information around your auto-renew policy in your organization's Terms and Conditions, we've partnered with Termly: an all-in-one compliance solution.
Including auto-renew information in renewal reminders
In your renewal reminder emails, we recommend clearly stating the following:
- The product or service being renewed, such as the member type
- The frequency of auto-renewals and how much the member is being charged
- Clear cancellation, or opt-out, instructions
To add this information, follow these steps:
- Navigate to the Database module and select Member Types.
- Hover over the member type with auto-renew payments enabled and select EDIT NOTIFICATIONS.
- Edit your renewal notifications to provide members with clear information on their auto-renew subscription.
Some state regulations require that a renewal notification is sent every 12 months. For member types that renew annually, your renewal notification should send out within 45 days of a members auto-renewal and no less than 15 days before.
For more information, see Customizing renewal notifications.
Obtaining and storing auto-renew payment consent records
In certain states, compliance laws and regulations require organizations to keep consent records for at least 3 years or 1 year after cancellation, whichever is longer. To maintain a record of consent, you can export form submissions where members opt-in to auto-renew payments.
For step-by-step instructions on exporting form submissions, see To export a submission list. On the Export Submissions screen, make sure to select Submission date and Automatically Renew. Your export will provide a list of members who've enrolled in auto-renew payments, along with the relevant dates.
The storage of your compliance records are up to your organization, and the duration will depend on the regulations of your country or state.
Providing members with instructions on opting-out
It's important that members know how to opt-out of auto-renew payments. To learn how, see Cancelling auto-renew payments. We recommend advising your members how they can opt-out from the following locations:
- Within your organization's Terms and Conditions, specifically your auto-renew compliance clause
- Renewal reminder notifications
- Your organization's membership application form
If auto-renew is set to required and members cannot opt-out on their own, we recommend providing members with details on how they can get in touch with an admin to manually cancel their auto-renew subscription.
Coming soon, we aim to make it easier for members to opt-out of auto-renew payments, as shown on our Product Roadmap. This will save administrators the trouble of manually cancelling auto-renew subscriptions and will allow members to manage their auto-renew subscriptions. Keep an eye on our Latest product release page for updates.
Additional resources
See below for some additional resources on auto-renew payment compliance: