Understanding your proration preview

When you change your membership level partway through your term, you don’t pay the full price of the new level. This page explains the amounts you see on the Review your change screen before you confirm, so there are no surprises.

The short version

You get credit for the part of your current level you haven’t used yet, and a charge for the part of the new level you’ll use for the rest of your term. The net is the difference — what you’ll pay or receive. You always see this before you confirm, and nothing is charged until you do.

How it works

On the Review your change screen, the money summary has these rows:

Credit for your current level — the value of the time you’ve already paid for but won’t use, now that you’re switching. Time you didn’t pay for (for example, a membership your organization activated without a payment) earns no credit.
Charge for the new level — the cost of the new level for the rest of your current term. When you move to a higher-priced level, that’s every remaining day of your term, including any time you were given without paying; when you move to a lower-priced or same-priced level, it’s only the time you’ve paid for (time you were given stays free). If the new level renews on a fixed date that comes sooner than your current renewal date, only the time up to that new date is charged — and the value of paid time after it comes back to you in the net.
Net today — the two rows combined. If it’s positive, that’s what you’ll be charged now. If it’s negative, that’s credit coming back to you.

Below the amounts, the screen also shows:

Your new renewal date — when your membership will renew after the switch.
Benefits you’ll gain and benefits you’ll lose — so a downgrade never quietly drops something you cared about.

The three ways credit is handled

Your organization chooses how your credit is handled. You’ll see one of these three, and if your organization allows it, you can pick from a How should we handle your credit? menu:

Apply the difference now — you pay or get back just the difference between the two levels, right away.
Add credit to your account balance — this is the most common setting. An upgrade charges the difference. A downgrade adds the unused value to your account balance, which is applied to your future invoices and registrations. See Your account balance and credits.
Charge full price and extend your renewal — there’s no partial credit row in this option. On an upgrade you pay the full new-level price now; on a downgrade nothing is charged today. Either way, what you paid for the time you haven’t used is turned into time on the new level, at the new level’s price. On an upgrade, your new renewal date is one full term from today plus that extra time. On a downgrade, or a move to a level at the same price, nothing is charged and the leftover buys time at the new level’s price, so on a downgrade your renewal date usually moves further out. Any amount too small to buy a whole day is added to your account balance. Time you were given without paying isn’t converted: it stays as it is on a downgrade, and on an upgrade the new full term covers it. There are two exceptions. A level that renews on a fixed date for everyone can’t move that date, so the unused value is added to your account balance and your new renewal date is that fixed date. A free level can’t turn money into time, so the unused value is added to your account balance and your renewal date stays the same. The screen shows the charge and tells you which applies.

What a downgrade credit means

When you move to a less expensive level, what happens to the leftover value depends on your organization’s setting — and the preview always tells you which, so you never have to guess:

With Apply the difference now, the leftover is refunded to your original payment method right away.
With Add credit to your account balance, the leftover is added to your account balance for use on future invoices and registrations (not sent back to your card automatically). If you’d prefer cash back from your balance instead, contact your organization’s admin — a refund from your balance is an admin-approved step.
With Charge full price and extend your renewal, nothing is charged today and the leftover buys time on the new level at its lower price, which extends your renewal date. If the new level renews on a fixed date for everyone, or is free, the leftover is added to your account balance instead.

Why it works this way

The goal is that you always see the real number before you commit. The amounts are worked out for your exact term and renewal date, so the preview matches what actually happens when you confirm. If a price changes between opening the preview and confirming, MapleGather shows you the updated amounts and asks you to confirm again — you never pay a figure you didn’t see.

Edge cases

A refund since you paid — if part of a payment was refunded, the credit is reduced by that refund once, however many times you change level afterwards.
A same-priced level — moving to a level with the same price never charges you; at most you receive credit back.
Switching is free — sometimes the credit and the charge cancel out, so the net is zero. The screen says “Switching is free — no charge, no credit,” and you can still confirm.
A lifetime level — a lifetime level never renews, so instead of a renewal date the screen says “Lifetime — never renews.”
Leaving a lifetime membership — if you hold a lifetime membership and switch to a level that gives a renewal date (one that renews, or a one-time level with a single fixed renewal date), the switch is a new purchase of that level: you pay its full first-term price, whichever credit option your organization uses and whether the new level costs more or less, and your lifetime membership ends. The screen says so plainly before you confirm (“Your lifetime membership will end”), and the new renewal date is one term from today. Until paying for a level change by card is available, your organization’s admin makes this change for you (and can choose to waive the charge) — unless nothing would be charged or refunded to your card, in which case you can confirm it yourself: a free level with Add credit to your account balance or Charge full price and extend your renewal, and with Apply the difference now only if you have no remaining credit (any credit would be refunded to your card); [amended pre-merge 2026-10-12, c21 AH r4: under price-delta a $0 level opens the exit only with no credit — a credit there nets negative, a card refund] with Apply the difference now, a credit that matches the price exactly; with Add credit to your account balance, a credit at or above the price. With Charge full price and extend your renewal the full price is always charged (your credit becomes extra days), so only a free level qualifies. [amended pre-merge 2026-10-12, c21 AH r3: per mode — charge-full-extend-renewal always charges the full price, so a credit never opens the exit there]
Between two levels that never renew — if your membership never renews (a lifetime level, or a one-time-payment level with no renewal date) and the new level never renews either, the charge shown is the difference between the two prices when the new one costs more, and nothing when it costs the same or less. No credit is shown or refunded, and the screen still says “Lifetime — never renews.” This is the same whichever credit option your organization uses. A one-time-payment membership with no renewal date counts as lifetime for the bullet above, too: switching from it to a level that gives a renewal date — for a one-time membership that is a one-time level with a single fixed renewal date, since levels on another billing schedule aren’t offered — is a new purchase.
A downgrade that loses benefits — the screen lists exactly which benefits go away, so you can decide before confirming.