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Advanced subscription use cases

This section covers advanced use cases that may not be applicable to your integration based on your business requirements.

Changing subscription plans

If you are based in EU or UK and PSD2 regulations apply to your services, you must call Close Charge Permission and ask the subscriber to complete Amazon Pay checkout again in order for the subscriber to change subscription plans. PSD2 regulations require that payment frequency changes must be communicated to the issuing bank. The issuing bank may require a new MFA challenge which can only be presented during Amazon Pay checkout.

If PSD2 regulations do not apply to your services, you can use Update Charge Permission to inform Amazon Pay if either the subscription frequency or cost changes.

Changing subscription payment instrument

Direct the subscriber to https://pay.amazon.com/ if they want to change the underlying payment instrument that is used for recurring payments.

Free trials

If your services offers a free trial, use the Confirm PaymentIntent to create a recurring Charge Permission without charging the subscriber. Amazon Pay will validate the payment instrument selected by the subscriber and you will receive a recurring Charge Permission that you can use for subsequent transactions once the free trial expires. You do not need to set recurringMetadata.Amount if the subscription amount is not known.

Handling variable cadence

Set recurringMetadata.frequency.unit to variable if your service continuously charges the buyer but the frequency at which the buyer is charged changes between each payment. Note that the charge must be initiated programmatically by your payment system. Recurring Charge Permissions do not support card-on-file or buyer initiated payments; using them for this purpose is a misuse of Amazon Pay and can result in canceled Charge Permissions.

Subscribers with multiple subscriptions

You can manage payments for a buyer who is subscribed to multiple subscriptions using a single Charge Permission or using different Charge Permissions for each subscription.

Single Charge Permission

Charge the subscriber using a single Charge Permission even if they are subscribed to multiple subscriptions. Specify the shortest subscription cadence when setting recurringMetadata.Frequency. Do not call Close Charge Permission unless the subscriber cancels all of their subscriptions as you will no longer be able to charge them.

Multiple Charge Permissions

Charge the subscriber using multiple Charge Permissions by having them complete Amazon Pay checkout for each subscription. If the buyer cancels a subscription, you can call Close Charge Permission for the Charge Permission associated to that subscription.

Subscriptions with long billing cycles

By default, a Charge Permission object expires after 13 months if it is not used to create any Charges. If recurringMetadata.Frequency is set to a billing cycle longer than 13 months, the expiration date will be extended to the value of recurringMetadata.Frequency plus one month.

Supporting both one-time and recurring payments

If you do not have an existing recurring Charge Permission for a subscriber, you can still request a recurring Charge Permission to use for one-time orders as long as the subscriber is also subscribing for a recurring subscription.

If you already have an existing recurring Charge Permission for a subscriber, you can use it to charge the subscriber for one-time orders.

Suspending subscriptions

You do not have to inform Amazon Pay about suspended subscriptions, simply stop charging the subscriber. Amazon Pay will automatically move the Charge Permission to a Closed state after the expiration date. Note that the default expiration date is either 13 months from the date the Charge Permission was created or 13 months from the date the buyer was last charged.

Updating shipping address

Amazon Pay does not provide a method for updating the shipping address associated to a recurring Charge Permission. The buyer must go through checkout and create a new recurring Charge Permission to select a different shipping address from their Amazon address book. You can manually collect a new shipping address from the buyer without updating the shipping address associated to their recurring Charge Permission but shipments using the new address will not be protected by the Amazon Pay Payment Protection Policy.