Period-based membership pauses

A period-based pause suspends both benefits and recurring charges for one or more complete billing periods. Use it when the agreement is naturally expressed as "one free billing period" or "skip the next two membership periods" rather than as exact calendar dates.

Period-based pauses are available only for recurring memberships. They follow the member's existing billing schedule, so they always begin and end on billing boundaries.

For an exact calendar range, a one-time membership, or a pause where payments should continue, use a date-based pause.

When a period-based pause is available

A new period pause can be scheduled when the membership:

• Uses recurring payments.
• Has not expired.
• Has not entered termination.
• Has a valid upcoming billing period.
• Has contract periods remaining, if it is fixed-term.
• Does not have another pause covering the same time.

A period pause is not available for:

• One-time memberships.
• Expired memberships.
• A fixed contract with no remaining periods.
• A membership already in its termination period.

Pause history remains visible even when no new pause can be scheduled.

The choices you make

Billing periods to skip

Choose how many complete periods should be free. A period is one billing cycle, so the same count means a month on a monthly membership and 30 days on a 30-day one.

A pause on a monthly membership resumes on the member's own billing day. If that day does not exist in the month the pause ends in, it falls on the last day of that month.

When paused periods count toward a fixed contract, their number cannot exceed the periods remaining at the selected start. When the pause extends the contract, this limit does not apply, but the pause must still begin before the contract is exhausted.

On a membership whose fixed periods are a minimum commitment, the same limit is the number of commitment periods left at the selected start. While a trial still defers that count, the membership's configured fixed period count is the limit. The form refuses a higher number.

Start with period on or after

Leave the start empty to pause the next billing period.

If you select a future date, Thril matches it to the first billing period beginning on or after that date. The portal shows the resolved start, end, and next possible charge date before the pause is scheduled.

Example:

Billing periods begin: 1 August, 31 August, 30 September
Selected date: 10 August
First paused period: 31 August

The pause does not begin on 10 August because that would split an existing billing period.

Contract duration effect

Fixed-term recurring memberships offer two choices.

Open-ended recurring memberships do not have a fixed contract count. They skip the selected charges and resume afterward without needing this choice.

For a fixed contract, Count paused periods toward the contract is selected by default.

When the membership's fixed periods are a minimum commitment, the field is named Minimum commitment effect and the two options are Count paused periods toward the minimum commitment and Extend the minimum commitment. They work the same way, measured against the commitment instead of the contract. See Minimum commitment below.

The fixed-contract effects in this table apply after a trial has moved into its paid contract. If a period pause covers the first renewal after a trial, the charge is skipped, but paid contract counting begins with the next renewal that is actually charged.

How skipped renewals are handled

Every billing date inside the pause is waived in full.

For a skipped renewal:

• No payment is created.
• No card charge is attempted.
• No partial or prorated amount is calculated.
• No introductory or goodwill price override is consumed.
• The next due date advances by one normal billing period.
• No recurring credits or session cards are issued for the skipped renewal.

Already created or paid charges are not refunded. A period pause starts at a future billing boundary and does not rewrite the preceding period.

Fixed contract: count paused periods toward the contract

Choose Count paused periods toward the contract when the member should receive free periods without moving the original contract end.

Assume the member has five periods remaining and pauses two periods:

The member pays nothing for the two paused periods, but both periods count toward the fixed commitment. This example assumes the paid contract has already begun.

If the pause consumes the final periods

Suppose the member has exactly two periods remaining and pauses both.

After the second skipped period:

Remaining contract periods: 0

At the next boundary, the membership ends instead of creating another charge. Physical access is not restored if the membership is no longer active.

Any separately saved days from earlier date-based pauses can still form a payment-free extension after the contract normally ends.

Fixed contract: extend the contract

Choose Extend the contract when the member should receive the paused periods later as additional contract periods.

Assume the member has five periods remaining and pauses two periods:

The two paused periods do not reduce the remaining contract count. Billing resumes after the pause, and the member still has all five paid contract periods ahead of them.

This moves the eventual contract end later by two billing periods.

Minimum commitment

A membership whose fixed periods are a minimum commitment continues after those periods until the member cancels. A period pause is measured against the commitment.

Assume the member has four commitment periods left and pauses two periods:

The choice appears only while commitment periods remain. A member who has served the whole commitment has nothing left to move, so their pause skips the selected charges with no commitment accounting.

Minimum commitment ends already accounts for a scheduled or active pause: every period still to be skipped moves the later billing boundaries, and the commitment end with them.

Across the trial boundary

A trial defers the start of the commitment, and the pause type decides which renewal starts it.

• Count paused periods toward the minimum commitment starts the commitment at the skipped renewal, exactly as a charge would. That period is served, and the trial is complete.
• Extend the minimum commitment starts nothing. The commitment begins at the first renewal that is actually paid.

Until that renewal, the member owes the whole minimum commitment. See Membership trial periods.

Open-ended recurring memberships

An open-ended membership has no fixed number of contract periods.

A period pause:

• Skips the selected complete renewal charges.
• Suspends benefits and access for those complete periods.
• Advances the renewal schedule normally.
• Resumes charging after the final skipped period.

There is no fixed contract to extend, so the contract-duration choice is not shown.

If the member needs exact paused days saved for a payment-free extension after eventual termination, use a date-based pause with duration extension instead.

Benefits, reservations, and access during the pause

The common pause rules apply for the complete paused periods: membership-derived benefits and access are unavailable, while previously issued credits and session cards remain separate. No new recurring grants are issued for skipped renewals. See Membership pauses for the shared benefit, visibility, and access behavior.

Introductory and goodwill prices

A skipped period does not use an introductory or goodwill recurring price because no charge is created.

For example:

Next renewal has a goodwill price
That renewal period is paused

The goodwill period remains available. It can be used by the next renewal that is actually charged.

Ending or cancelling a period pause

Delete before it starts

A scheduled period pause can be deleted.

• The pause is removed before it affects billing.
• Benefits and access remain available.
• No period is skipped.
• The original billing schedule continues.
• The pause is removed from pause history.

End after it starts

An active pause can be ended while it still has unprocessed periods.

• Benefits become available again.
• If the membership is otherwise eligible, Thril requests physical-access restoration. The connected system may take additional time to update.
• Periods already skipped remain free.
• Previously consumed contract periods are not added back.
• The next due date is charged normally because the pause no longer applies.

Once all selected periods have been skipped, there is nothing left to cancel. The pause finishes at its planned end.

What happens when the membership is terminated

Termination ends period-based payment pausing so that termination-period billing can proceed normally.

• A future scheduled period pause is removed.
• An active period pause is ended.
• Periods already skipped remain skipped.
• Future termination-period renewals are charged normally.
• Access eligibility is re-evaluated using the terminated membership's remaining active time.

This prevents a previously scheduled pause from silently waiving required termination-period charges.

How delayed renewal processing is handled

Thril evaluates the billing date being processed, not merely the time when processing happens.

If a renewal scheduled for 1 August is processed later, it is still skipped when 1 August was inside the period pause. Similarly, a renewal due before the pause is not skipped just because its processing finishes during the pause.

This keeps pause outcomes stable even when payment processing is delayed.

Return to Membership pauses for the comparison with date-based pauses.