Set up payment plans

Payment plans are one of the payment options you can enable for customers at checkout. Payment plans allow customers to pay the total price in instalments, ideal for high-cost experiences and accommodations. There are two types of payment plans:

• Automatic: The customer’s credit card is automatically charged in equal instalments, either monthly or on specific dates you set, until the full balance is paid.
• Manual: Customers can log into their account and make payments at any time after booking confirmation.

How to offer payment plans

1. From your admin dashboard, go to Settings > Payments.
2. Under Manage Payment Plans, click Create a Payment Plan.
3. Next, select your Initial Instalment option, this can be either Dynamic amount, which means all instalments including the upfront payment are equal, or Fixed amount, which allows you to set a higher or lower initial payment. 
   • Tip: Set a fixed instalment t as 0 for a "buy now, pay later" payment option
4. Select your number of follow up instalments. Note, that plans will only be offered on bookings made early enough to complete all instalments before departure.
5. Then, choose when you would like instalments to be paid, either Monthly from booking confirmation, or On specific dates.
   • If you select On specific dates, you will be given the option to Add installments to be collected on specific dates. Note, installments must be at least 7 days apart.
6. Choose how follow-up instalments are paid: Automatically or Manually.
7. Optionally, switch on Charge a Payment Plan Fee to add an extra fee for customers that choose the payment plan option. Choose between a fixed fee or percentage fee. Learn more about payment plan fees.
8. Click Save.
9. Next, go to Experiences or Accommodations, and select the product you'd like to switch on a payment plan for.
10. Navigate to the Payment Settings tab and, under Choose a Payment Plan, select your payment plan from the dropdown menu.
11. Click Save to publish changes.
12. Repeat for other experiences and accommodations that this payment plan applies to.

The option to pay in full or with a payment plan will now be available for customers at checkout.

Payment plans can't be offered if:

• The order does not meet the minimum order total of GBP 50
• The last payment in this plan is after your experience start date

How to edit a payment plan

Editing a payment plan will only affect future customers that book. To edit an existing booking on an active payment plan, please see instructions here.

To edit a payment plan for all experiences and accommodations that it's applied to:

1. Go to Settings > Payments in your admin dashboard.
2. Click Edit on the payment plan you'd like to update.
3. Make your desired changes - these will apply to all future bookings.

To edit a payment plan for a specific experience or accommodation:

1. Go to Experiences or Accommodations, and select the product you'd like to edit a payment plan for.
2. Navigate to the Payment Settings tab and click Create a new Payment Plan.
3. Make the desired changes.
4. Check that the last payment in your new payment plan is before your experience's start date so that it can be enabled at checkout.

How customers are charged on payment plans

Once a customer makes a booking with the Automatic payment plan option, their credit card will be charged for the first instalment in the plan. The customer will then be billed automatically either every month on the same day they made the original purchase, or on the specific dates that you have set (including payment plan fees if applicable), until the full balance is paid.

Example

When a customer books using a Manual Payment Plan, their card is charged for the initial instalment.

After that, they can make payments of any amount toward the remaining balance at any time. Additionally, with Group Pay enabled, they can invite friends to contribute towards the balance. Learn more about Group Pay. 

Note: To allow guests to make payments toward a booking, Group Pay must be enabled in Settings > Payments.

Troubleshooting payment failure

In the event a customer's credit card fails to be charged, they will receive an automatic email notification and Easol will attempt to charge the card two more times. The attempts to charge the card on file will be made in one-week intervals.  

If all 3 attempts to charge the card fail, the payment plan will automatically be cancelled and the booking will revert to manual payments within 24 hours of the third failed payment attempt. If the customer was charged a payment plan fee on their payment plan, their payment plan fee will be removed from their balance at this time.

From here, the customer will need to manually pay for the remaining balance by logging in at yourdomain.com/bookings.

How customers can update payment details

To update payment details at any point during the payment plan, the customer can go to yourdomain.com/bookings and follow the link CHANGE CARD on the booking.

Learn more about your customer booking system