Installment payments are a flexible payment option that lets buyers split an online purchase into two, three, or even four payments instead of paying all at once.
The result: a lower upfront cost for the payer, making it easier to commit.
This article covers the following topics:
- How installment payments work and their benefits.
- Requirements for using installment payments
- How to set up installment payments on your form
- The member's sign-up experience
- Stopping an installment payment
- Tracking installment payments in your books
- Payment failure and schedule cancellation
- Additional information
How installment payments work and their benefits
Installment payments split the total amount due into equal parts spread out over time.
By reducing the immediate financial burden, installments make it easier to complete a purchase while retaining all the convenience of card payments.
Springly lets you offer installment card payments on Membership Campaigns, Event forms, and Product Sales forms.
Example:
Let's say you want a $100 membership to be paid in 4 installments, one month apart, starting June 23. The payment schedule would look like this:
- 1st installment: $25 – June 23 (= the day the membership is taken out);
- 2nd installment: $25 – July 23;
- 3rd installment: $25 – August 23;
- 4th installment: $25 – September 23.
We'll refer back to this example throughout the article.
Benefits of installment payments
Strengthen relationships with members
Offering installment payments helps your nonprofit retain existing members and attract new ones. By providing flexible payment options, your organization builds trust with prospective members.
Boost service sales
Another key benefit of installment payments is the ability to offer more to your members. When payments are spread out, members are more likely to sign up for additional services at checkout.
Drive faster decisions
Installment payments are a powerful driver of action. By lowering the price barrier through spreading out payments, they make it easier for people to decide and purchase right away.
Requirements for using installment payments
- Your nonprofit's e-wallet must be created and verified;
- Tax Receipts must not be enabled on the form.
Setting up installment payments on your forms
The steps below use a Membership Campaign as an example. The process is identical for Events and Product Sales forms.
Step 1: Create your Membership Campaign
Start by creating a Membership Campaign as you normally would. If you need guidance, check out this article.
Step 2: Enable installment payments
In the form, go to Step 4 – Payment and Confirmation and check the "Credit card installments" option under the available payment methods.
Enter the number of installments and the payment frequency based on your needs.
- The number of payments is the total number of installments needed to pay the full membership amount. Example: the membership will be paid in 4 installments;
- The payment frequency is the interval in months between each payment. Example: payments will be charged every month.
The member's sign-up experience
Now that your form is set up, here's what the experience looks like for the member.
The installment payment option appears on the payment page as "Pay the first installment now and the rest later". A summary of upcoming installments is displayed at the bottom of the page.
The first installment is charged immediately.
The member is guided through the process. They enter their card details and click the Pay $25.00 button.
Note: the amount shown on the "Pay $XX" button is only the first installment, which is charged immediately.
The payment is 100% secure, ensuring that the person using the card is its legitimate owner.
Once the payment is processed, a confirmation message appears indicating that the payment was accepted.
The payer receives a confirmation email that includes the full payment schedule.
Stopping an installment payment
If needed — for example, after discussing with the payer — you can stop the remaining installments from being charged.
To do so, go to the transaction page (for example, via the list of form Registrants) and click the "Stop payment" button.
This is only possible for "Scheduled" transactions. Transactions with a status of "Paid" or "In progress" cannot be canceled. If needed, process a manual refund.
Only a primary Administrator on the platform can stop upcoming payments — the payer cannot cancel the schedule themselves. That said, a schedule can also be interrupted for other reasons, which we list below in this article.
Tracking installment payments in your books
With installment payments, you no longer have to wait until month-end to update your books: a book entry is created automatically for each transaction.
When the membership is taken out, the initial book entry is created and automatically linked to the member.
A new book entry is then recorded each time an installment is paid.
You can easily track pending payments from the "Debts and Receivables" page (navigate to: Accounting > Book entry).
For more information on this topic, check out this article.
Payment failure and schedule cancellation
A Buyer cannot choose to stop a payment schedule. However, a schedule may be interrupted for various reasons, including:
- insufficient funds in the person's bank account;
- expired card;
- the bank blocks the charge (for example, because it detects a potential fraud attempt).
When the system detects a failed payment:
- It retries the payment 3 times. After the third attempt, if there are still insufficient funds to cover the amount due, the payment is automatically declined and the schedule is paused;
- after those 3 attempts, an automated email is sent to the payer with a link to update their card details and enter one with sufficient funds.
If this happens and the person hasn't responded to the update emails, we recommend reaching out to the member directly to request an alternative payment method (online or offline). If they provide a new card after your message, you can restart the payment schedule.
Platform Administrators are not notified when a payment schedule is interrupted. You can, however, find unpaid installments in your debts and receivables as well as in the form Registrants list, by filtering by payment status (Forms > form type > View Registrants > Filter by payment status, then select "Partial payment" or "No payment").
Additional information
- Payment Fees (1.8% + $0.25) apply to each installment. If you enabled a Tip, it will be divided equally across all installments. For more information about online payment fees, see this article
- The member receives an email notification three days before each upcoming payment
- If a member has paid their full membership via installments and requests a Refund, you will need to process it offline
- If someone requests a Refund before all installments have been paid, make sure to stop the payment schedule first before processing the offline refund — otherwise you may end up having to refund subsequent installments as well
- The "Mark as paid" button shown in transaction details is used to mark transactions as "paid" for nonprofits that do not use the Accounting module on their platform.
- The Redirect page for continued purchases feature, which allows users to move from one form to another with a shared payment, is not available with installment payments.
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