Your account balance and credits

Your account balance is credit your organization holds for you. This page explains where that credit comes from, where to see it, and how to use it.

The short version

Account credit is money your organization has set aside on your record. It’s applied automatically toward your next invoice, and you can also choose to apply it when you pay an invoice. Your balance never goes below zero.

Where credit comes from

Your account balance can go up from any of these:

A level change — when you move to a less expensive level, the leftover value is often added to your balance. See Understanding your proration preview.
A grant from your organization — an admin can add credit, for example as a goodwill gesture.
An overpayment — if you pay more than an invoice’s balance, the extra becomes credit.
A refund to your balance — your organization can send a refund to your account balance instead of your card.

Where to see your balance and history

Open the member portal and go to Billing. When you have credit or past credit activity, an Account balance section shows your current balance and a history list. Each row shows the date, a short description, the amount added or applied, and your running balance. Select Load more to see older entries.

If you have no credit and no history, the Account balance section doesn’t appear — there’s simply nothing to show yet.

How it works

Your credit is applied automatically toward your next invoice. You don’t have to do anything for it to count against a scheduled charge.

You can also apply it yourself when you pay an open invoice:

From Billing, select Pay now on the open invoice.
Select the Apply my account balance checkbox. It shows how much credit you have available.
Watch the total update:
- If your credit covers the whole amount, the card section is replaced with “Your balance covers this — no card needed,” and the button reads Pay with account balance.
- If your credit covers part of the amount, you’ll see how much credit is applied and how much is left to pay by card.
Finish the payment. When credit covers only part of the amount, the button first reads Continue to payment — selecting it sets the payment up, and the button then becomes the pay button showing exactly what will be charged to your card. If your organization adds a processing fee, that charge can be more than the amount left after your credit; see Complete checkout as a member or prospect. When your credit covers the whole amount there is no card step and no processing fee.

A few things to know

You can’t add credit to your own balance or take cash out here — that’s up to your organization’s admin.
A refund back to your card, rather than to your balance, is your organization’s decision.
Amounts are shown in your organization’s currency.