Grace Period

A grace period is the time given to a subscriber to update their payment method if there is an issue with it during an automatic renewal. If the subscriber's automatic renewal payment fails, Galaxy Store automatically attempts another payment transaction after 24 hours. Additionally, you can extend this grace period to beyond 24 hours.

A grace period allows the subscriber time to update their payment method, increasing overall stability of auto-renewal and minimizing cancellations.

Subscriptions remain active during a grace period. If the subscriber's automatic renewal payment succeeds during the grace period, automatic payments continue on the same renewal date (the renewal date is not reset and the payment cycle remains the same). When the grace period ends and the subscriber's final automatic renewal payment attempt fails, the subscription is cancelled.

There are two types of grace periods:

  • Silent
  • Seller-Defined

Silent grace period

The silent grace period is the minimum amount of time Galaxy Store waits before attempting another payment transaction after the initial automatic renewal payment transaction failed. The default time is 24 hours and cannot be changed.

During the silent grace period, Instant Server Notifications are not sent.

The silent grace period is automatically applied to all automatic renewals that initially fail and cannot be disabled.

If the seller-defined grace period is set to None and the payment transaction attempt fails after the silent grace period, the subscription is automatically cancelled.

Seller-Defined grace period

The seller-defined grace period is the additional amount of time you can give the subscriber to update their payment method when there is an issue with it during an automatic renewal. The seller-defined grace period is set in Seller Portal for any subscription item and is simply referred to as "grace period" in Seller Portal.

You can choose an additional 3, 7, 14, or 30-day grace period for your subscription item. However, this grace period must be equal to or shorter than the subscription's payment cycle. Galaxy Store attempts a payment transaction once a day during this grace period.

If you change the grace period, any subscriptions already in a seller-defined grace period are not impacted. That is, if you change the grace period from 14 to 7 days, any user whose subscription is currently in a seller-defined grace period still has 14 days to update their payment method.

When a subscription enters the seller-defined grace period, Galaxy Store sends a notice to the user about payment failure through email and app notifications asking them to change their payment method. Additionally, if you have configured the Samsung In-App Purchase Instant Server Notification (ISN) service, Galaxy Store sends you a notification with the grace period status (ARS_IN_GRACE_PERIOD) and data claim. You can use this information to send your own email or notification and encourage the user to update their payment method to prevent cancellation of the subscription (and include the deep link to the subscription detail page so they can quickly and easily update their payment method).

Examples

The following are examples of the events that occur during the grace period. The user subscribes to an item on Jan. 15. It is a monthly subscription with a monthly payment cycle. The seller-defined grace period is set to 7 days. The automatic renewal fails on Feb. 15. After the 1-day silent grace period, an email and app notification is sent to the user asking them to update their payment method and an ISN is sent to the seller (if the ISN service has been configured).

Monthly subscription, payment method updated

The user updates their payment method during the seller-defined grace period and the automatic renewal payment is successful.

Monthly subscription, payment method not updated

The user does not update their payment method, all automatic renewal payment attempts fail, and the subscription is cancelled.