What are Subscriptions?
Mercado Pago subscriptions allow you to receive recurring payments by credit and debit card. The availability of payment methods varies according to the form of integration.
Available Roles
There are two roles involved:
- The seller or collector, who is the owner of the subscription and creditor of the amounts due.
- The payer, who will pay the amounts automatically from the chosen payment methods.
Do you want to offer subscriptions quickly and easily?
Enter the Subscription plans section on your Mercado Pago account panel, set the data you need and that's it!
Key concepts
In order to integrate subscriptions, you need to know four key concepts:
| Concept | Description |
|---|---|
| Subscription plan or template | It is a template that allows you to define, among other attributes, the title, amount and frequency of subscriptions created by the seller. It serves to establish general characteristics in the subscriptions that are created from this entity. It is important to clarify that no payment method is set up here yet. |
| Subscription or pre-approval | Payer authorization for recurring payments with a defined payment method that will be the basis for creating installments according to the recurrence that is defined. It has similar characteristics to the template, since a subscription can be created from a plan. |
| Authorized payment | It is the installment of a subscription that is generated and charged based on the defined recurrence. The subscription engine schedules and generates payments automatically. |
| Verification payment | This is a minimum charge, which is made at the time of the payer's subscription only to verify that the card used to pay the subscription is a valid one. This amount is immediately refunded to the payer. |
| Billing date | This is the date that the seller can set for receiving the charges for a subscription with a monthly payment frequency. |
| Proportional amount (pro-rata) | It is the amount charged to the subscriber if he/she initiates the subscription on a day other than the billing date established by the seller. This amount is proportional to the days elapsed between the beginning of the subscription and the date of the first monthly billing. |
| Free trial | This is a free period that the seller can offer to the subscriber before the first billing. In this case, the subscriber is exempt from the first payment starts paying on the following charges. |
Billing date and proportional amount
In the following chart you can see how the billing date and the eventual charging of the proportional amount (prorate) works.
Billing date and proportional amount (with free trial)
If you set a billing date for a subscription that also has a free trial period set up, the proportional amount will only be charged to the subscriber one month after the subscription is joined, as shown in the following graphic.
