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This document answers the most important questions connected with billing:
How do I pay?
You may have a possibility to choose between these types of payment:
- Credit card - this type of payment allows you to
pay for resources online. Contact your system administrator
if your credit card brand is not supported. Sometimes, the account
may require system administrator to approve of your registration, in
which case the account will not be available immediately.
- Check - you must send a check to the specified location.
After the check is received, the system administrator makes your
account available for use. Check payments can be disabled.
- Trial - in some plans you may be allowed to sign up
as a trial user in order to become familiar with the system first.
If you don't like the services, you won't have to pay
anything. If you like the system and decide to become a
pay user, you will be charged for the services you have
used during the trial period. When the trial period expires,
your account gets suspended and you receive a
notification. See How do I become a pay user?
for more.
How Do I Create A Billing Profile?
Your billing details, such as billing info (essential
for checks) and credit card info
(valid only for credit card payment), are stored in your billing
profile.
- Billing Info comprises the details such as first
and second names, company name, phone,
e-mail and address you provided at the sign up aside from
your contact info. This is where the admin mails bills if
you has chosen to pay by check. This info is also used to
contact the person responsible for the financial aspects of
your account.
- Credit Card Info comprises the number, name and expiration
date of user's credit card.
Both Billing and Credit Card Info can be different for
each billing profile.
There is no way you can edit your billing details,
you can only create a new billing profile. You cannot delete a billing
profile either.
When you sign up as a pay user, a new billing
profile is created. For trial users, no billing
profile is created. The system, however, keeps track of all
trial user's purchases and includes them into the user's bills
available in Online Invoice.
Having multiple billing profiles gives you an opportunity
to use several check accounts or credit cards in turn,
activating the one you currently would like to be used. Also,
you can share one billing profile between your accounts.
This means you can pay with one card / receive bills at one
address for all your accounts. Settings are configured individually
for each billing profile.
To create a new billing profile or view the
settings of the existing profiles, select Billing Profile
in the Billing menu. You would be taken to a page similar
to this:
- New Billing Profile: Here you can create a new billing profile.
After you create it, it will be the active profile.
- Receive the invoice by e-mail?:
Toggle the ON/OFF button
to receive/unsubscribe invoice e-mails that inform you of:
- how much was accrued/charged for a) each paid operation,
b) as recurrent and usage fee when passing to a new
payment interval;
- your current balance status.
- Change Billing Profile: Here you can activate any of you billing
profiles. Select the profile you want and press Activate.
- Billing Period: Your plan may have various payment intervals.
Here you can switch between them. Find extensive coverage
below.
When Do I Pay?
When you register as a pay user, you specify the preferred
duration of your billing period. Upon the account activation,
your new billing period opens. It defines WHEN the system
charges the fees. For fee types see Online Price.
A new billing period opens:
- when your account is activated after signup
- when your suspended account gets resumed
- when you switch to another plan
- when you change your billing period
A billing period closes:
- when you quit hosting
- when your account gets suspended
- when you switch to another plan
- when you change your billing period
What Do I Pay For?
The prices for the resources (services) that are included
in your plan are listed in the Online Price table:
- Free Units: the minimum number of units of the resource you
will initially get for free.
- Setup Fee: single-time amount payable at the moment when a
unit of this specific resource is purchased.
- Recurrent Fee: the amount payable at the beginning of each payment
interval for the resource you use. If a resource is purchased
in the middle of the payment interval, the recurrent fee
is calculated for the period from this moment to the end
of the payment interval Recurrent fee is refundable adjusted
for refund percentage (see below).
- Usage Fee (i.e. extra): payment for every resource unit used
over the set quota charged at the end of each billing period.
It is also charged when you change to a different plan or
delete this resource; in such case it is calculated for
the period from the beginning of the payment interval to
the moment of resource deletion or plan change. Usage fee
is nonrefundable.
- Refund Percentage:
You will be returned recurrent fee (adjusted
for the refund percentage) for the days left to the end
of the current billing period when you quit using the resource.
E.g.: Your billing period is 1 month long. It started on
November 1 and will be closed on November 30. Recurrent
fee for dedicated IP is $3. At the beginning of your billing
period you were charged $3 for dedicated IP. On November
10 you are switching to shared IP. With 10% refund you will
get back $0,2.
Here is the formula to calculate the refund money:
money to be refunded = (recurrent fee x time left to
the closure of the billing period)/ duration of the billing
period.
Empty fields mean that the nothing is charged for this resource.
If all fields for a specific resource are empty, this
resource is free.
IMPORTANT: Refunds are not placed on credit card
accounts. Instead, money is either put on your hosting
account balance or is sent to you by check.
How do I view my billing history?
To see your charges by billing profiles for one account,
select Online Invoice in the Billing menu.
An invoice consists of consequent bills:
Balance shows how much money you have on your balance.
A negative balance shows how much you owe for the services used. This
is usually appropriate for users who pay by check and for
credit card users whose credit cards failed to be charged.
Credit restricts your ability to buy new resources
in case your credit card fails to be charged or you have run
out of your 'check' money.
- Description:
the name of your current account.
- Amount:
the amount accrued for the billing period. This amount consists
of accruals for all resources, including the setup, recurrent
and usage fee. However, it does not include or depend on
factual charges, nor is it related to debits and credits
to the account. For example, if you were accrued $10 setup
fee, the Amount will show $10.00, even if your credit
card has been immediately credited by this amount.
- From:
the beginning of the payment period.
- To:
the end of the payment period. In the example illustrated
above, Opened means that the billing period has not
finished.
A new bill is created for every new payment interval The initial
setup fee is put in a separate bill.
To view details of any bill in the invoice, click its Description
in the first column. The picture below illustrates details
of the initial setup bill:
Total shows the amount due for factual services offered.
It does not include most of the items highlighted by yellow,
such as items that were immediately charged off the credit card,
credits or debits to the account balance by the administrator, etc.
*To get a printable version of your bill, click the Printer
icon in the bill header which will open it in a separate window
suitable for immediate printout (version 2.08 and higher).
How Do I View My Overall Charges?
To view charges for all your accounts, select
Online Summary Invoice, in the Billing menu,
then select the billing profile. If you are just starting
with your account, you will see something like this:
Select the profile from the box and press the Get Invoice
button.
The Online Summary Invoice page will display your bills
for all accounts.
How do I become a pay user?
If you are a trial user, you will get this window at the end of the
trial period:
This means you need to become a pay user. For this,
all you need to do is
create a billing profile using
the Billing Profile utility from the Billing menu.
- Check payments:
You need to send a check payment for the amount due
plus, if possible, an amount to cover possible future costs.
After the administrator receives your payment and credits it
to your account, you will become a pay user.
- Credit card payments:
If the credit card is valid, the outstanding amount is charged,
and you will become a pay user.
In either case, if the account was suspended, it resumes.
How Can I Get My Money
Back?
When using H-Sphere, you can claim all your recurrent and usage
payments back if you decide to quit hosting during the Money
Back period. Mind that the setup fees for any resources will
not be returned.
Not all plans allow to claim money back. To find out whether this
feature is available under a plan, go to the signup/login
page and click the link that says: To compare available
hosting plans and price schemes, please click here. In
the form that appears, check the boxes to the plans you want
to compare or click the Plan group link to compare grouped
plans and their price schemes. In the first section of the
chart that appears find Money Back Guarantee.
To claim the money back, select Money Back in the
Billing menu. The following page will appear:
After
you click the first link, your account will be suspended:
The
amount due will be sent by check to the address you specified
in the Billing Info.
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