Real-World Example
ABC Collections currently has 10,000 active consumer accounts. They try to downgrade to a plan that allows only 5,000 accounts. The system should stop that change and explain that the selected plan is too small for the current account count.
Later, ABC Collections upgrades to a higher plan. The system should calculate the upgrade according to the membership billing rules, charge the saved membership payment method when needed, and update the active plan.
Visual Flow
Plans and Billing Cycles
Membership plans may use weekly, monthly, or annual billing cycles. Authorized users can upgrade, downgrade, change the billing cycle, replace the saved membership payment method, or cancel when the selected plan allows it. A downgrade or cycle change must still respect active account limits and the effective-date rules shown before confirmation.
Cancel Membership Options
When a creditor cancels a membership, the cancellation is scheduled for the end of the current billing period. The creditor must choose one of three options:
- Keep My Accounts Live: the membership ends, but the creditor profile, billing information, ecoAddress, and consumer accounts stay available.
- Keep My Profile, Cancel All My Consumer Accounts: the membership ends and consumer accounts are deactivated, but the creditor profile and billing information are saved.
- Cancel All – End of Billing Period: the membership ends and the creditor profile, ecoAddress, billing profile, users, and consumer accounts are closed through the full cancellation cleanup flow.
The daily membership cleanup job applies the selected option only after the billing period has ended. Existing active memberships should not be closed because of an older historical cancellation record.
Membership Payment Method
The saved method can be used for membership, usage, and over-limit charges. Card or ACH details should be collected through the secure payment-provider form. YouNegotiate should store provider references and safe display details rather than raw card or bank credentials.
Before saving a new method, the platform must retrieve it from the provider and verify that it belongs to the correct creditor billing customer. Replacing the method must make the verified method available for supported billing recovery without exposing full payment details.
How It Should Work
- It should show the creditor’s current membership plan and available plan options.
- It should allow the creditor to update the membership payment method.
- It should clearly show whether a valid membership payment method is available.
- It should let the creditor submit a special-plan inquiry when no custom membership exists yet.
- It should keep the membership card order from the app: upgrades, special-plan inquiry card, then downgrades.
- It should prevent selecting a plan that cannot support the creditor’s active consumer count.
- Upgrades should apply according to the app’s upgrade and prorating rules.
- Same-level or downgrade changes may be scheduled for the next plan cycle when applicable.
- The creditor should be able to cancel a plan according to the available cancellation options.
- Failed over-limit payments should be retryable when the account is blocked because of over-limit billing.
How It Should Not Work
- It should not allow a downgrade below the creditor’s active consumer count.
- It should not update payment details without valid payment information.
- It should not trust an unverified payment-method reference supplied by the browser.
- It should not create a second pending special-plan inquiry for the same creditor.
- It should not charge the wrong amount for a plan change.
- It should not expose full payment credentials or attach a payment method to another creditor.
- It should not leave the creditor blocked after a successful over-limit retry.
- It should not cancel or change another creditor’s membership.
- It should not apply full profile cleanup when the creditor selected an option that keeps the profile or keeps accounts live.
Last modified on August 13, 2026
