How Billing Works

Credits: the currency you spend

Everything you send through ShoutOUT Engage is paid for using credits. You can get credits in two ways:

• Plan credits: A monthly allowance included with your subscription.
• Top-up credits: Extra credits you can buy whenever you need them, separately from your plan.

When you send messages, we use your plan credits first. Once those run out, we start using your top-up credits.

Subscription plans

A subscription plan is a recurring monthly payment that gives you a fixed number of credits during each billing cycle. You are billed automatically once a month on your renewal date.

At each renewal, your plan credit balance resets to your plan’s monthly allowance. It does not get added to the credits left over from the previous month. Unused plan credits do not carry over.

You can see your current plan, plan status, and next renewal date at the top of the Billing page.

Top-up credits

If you need more credits than your plan includes, you can buy a top-up package at any time. This is a one-time purchase: you pay once and receive the credits immediately.

Unlike plan credits, top-up credits do not expire or reset each month. They remain in your balance until you use them, and they are only used after your monthly plan credits run out.

Changing your plan

You can switch plans at any time from the Billing page. What happens next depends on whether you are upgrading to a more expensive plan or downgrading to a cheaper one.

Upgrading to a more expensive plan

Your new plan starts immediately, and you are charged the full price of the new plan at the time of the upgrade. Your plan credit balance also resets immediately to the new plan’s monthly allowance.

Your previous plan is cancelled as soon as the new one starts, so you are never billed for both plans at once.

There is no refund or account credit for the time remaining on your previous plan. When you upgrade, you immediately receive the new plan’s full credit allowance. The credits from your current billing cycle were also already made available and may have been used to send messages.

Downgrading to a cheaper plan

You are not charged when you schedule a downgrade. Because you have already paid for your current billing cycle, you keep your existing plan and its credits until that cycle ends.

On your next renewal date, your account automatically switches to the cheaper plan, and you are charged the new plan’s price. Your plan credit balance resets to the new plan’s monthly allowance at the same time.

The Billing page shows the plan you are switching to and the date the change will take effect. If you change your mind, you can cancel the scheduled downgrade from that notice at any time before it takes effect. You will then remain on your current plan.

This ensures you receive everything you have already paid for before your plan changes. You are not charged twice or given a partial refund for the current billing period.

Switching plans again before a downgrade takes effect

If you choose a different cheaper plan while a downgrade is already scheduled, we update the scheduled change to the newly selected plan. Multiple plan changes do not stack.

If you upgrade instead, the scheduled downgrade is cancelled automatically and the upgrade takes effect immediately.

Invoices

Every payment—including subscription renewals, upgrades, and top-up purchases—is recorded in the Invoices tab on the Billing page. You can view and download invoices there for your records.