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Invoicing and Automatic Billing

 

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Details on the billing date and auto-renewal of accounts


Understanding how and when you're billed for HostGator items is an important piece of using your account. Read through the sections below to get a better idea about how the auto-renewal of prepay accounts and the billing date work.

Breakdown of your Bill

Service items: This includes the hosting plan, domain, emails, or add ons you've subscribed to. 
Account Balance: We will first apply any positive balance on your account to your bill. Any balance will be charged to your payment method.
Invoice Date: This is when we will generate your invoice and send you a notification to pull funds from your account balance. If your services are set to auto-renew, we will attempt to pull funds when the invoice is generated. This is not the same as your billing date, which may be up to 15 days later.
Date Range: Designates the time that the service charged applies to. 

Billing Date

Your account is billed 15 days before the start date of your monthly service. For example, an account that started on May 15th will be billed on the 1st of every month. This helps ensure that the payment will have processed and your service will remain uninterrupted.

Grace Periods and Payment Windows

Though there is a 15 day period between when we generate and send an invoice and when the next billing cycle begins, we provide a grace period in addition to this time for a payment to be made. If there is no payment when the term starts, the service is automatically suspended, but you have 45* days to make the payment before the service is canceled. 

*Domain names are subject to additional fees in addition to renewal pricing.

Notification Policy

For hosting renewals, we will send you email notifications following the schedule:
  1. Once the invoice is generated 15 days before the due date.
  2. 45 days before your service start date for yearly or bi-annual plans.
If there is a successful payment, we will not send you another notice. If there is any reason we are unable to charge your payment method on file, we will also contact you at the following times to ensure you do not have a lapse of service:
  1. The day(s) the invoice payment fails.
  2. 5 days after the payment has lapsed. 
For Domain renewals, we will send you email notifications following the schedule:
  1. 30 days before the domain expires.
  2. 7 days before the domain expires.
  3. The day the domain renews.

Common Questions

Why was I billed twice in one month?
If your previous bill date occurred somewhere between the 1st and the 15th of the month, your new bill date would occur in the previous month. This is a result of the billing schedule and will happen for the first month only. For example, if your service start date is May 1st, you will be billed for renewal on May 15th for your June service. Then in June, you will be billed on June 15th for your July service. This is not a double charge; all of your charges come 15 days prior to the service renewal date.
 
Why did my price go up?
Your bill is a combination of the various plans and add ons you've purchased in your account, and not all items may renew with the same billing term length. Some items may have had a first-month promotion or an account credit added that would contribute to a lower price previously.