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Essential: Understanding Instant Pay vs. Prepay
Essential: Understanding Instant Pay vs. Prepay
Updated over 2 months ago

If you are an Essential customer, there are two ways you can pay for your gifts - prepay and instant pay.


🏦 Prepay 🏦

This will require you to deposit enough funds before sending out your gifts. We recommend this option so that it's easier to track your budget and funds, and to ensure that your gifts will be successfully sent.

To use the Prepay billing method, you need to deposit funds into your account. This can be done by going to the Billing tab → "+ Add Billing Method." Enter a name for the invoice, the amount you would like to deposit, and the billing address, including the email to which you want the invoice sent.

Make sure that when you input your deposit amount, you account for the gift budget + 10% estimated tax + Snappy fee, as well as a small buffer to make sure gifts go out smoothly.

If you run low on funds, you can always top off your prepay by clicking pencil icon to the right of your prepayment.

Deposit Invoice and Payment

Once the billing method is created, a deposit invoice will be sent to the specified email for the prepay deposit. This invoice can also be accessed under the Invoice section.

You can pay the invoice with a credit card by clicking the “Pay now” link on the invoice, which will make the deposit available immediately on your Dashboard.

Alternatively, you can choose to pay using ACH or wire transfer. Please note that ACH and wire transfer may take longer to process as our Finance team must verify the payment. Once the payment has been reviewed and approved, you will receive an email notification and the funds will be available on the dashboard.

Sending Gifts and Budget Monitoring

Once the funds are received and the invoice is paid, the deposited amount will be added to your prepay balance. You can now send gifts and the cost will be deducted from your prepay balance. Your remaining budget will be updated based on the gifts you send and the actual cost of the claimed gifts on the first business day of each month.

⚡ Instant Payment ⚡

Your card will be charged for the full amount of your gift (budget + Snappy fee + 10% estimated sales tax) at the time of send. Your credit card can be added to the account on the last step of your campaign → Add payment method → toggle over to "Instant Payment" as shown below.

Upon invoicing for claimed + processed gifts (monthly), any remaining funds will be added back to your account as credits which will automatically be applied for future gift sends or refunded upon request by submitting the form located here.

Credit Card Checkout

During the gift send process, you can choose to pay for the estimated cost of the gift (gift budget, estimated fee and tax) with a credit card. This option can be found under the Instant Payment tab in the payment selector.

Monthly Reconciliation

On the first business day of each month, our Finance team will run an invoice for all gifts claimed + processed (shipped out) within the previous month. The difference between the estimated cost you paid and actual cost of the claimed gifts will be returned to the “Instant Payments” balance as credits which can be viewed under the main Billing tab.

You can view your invoice by heading to the Billing tab → Invoices section.

Please Note: If you have an automated campaign set up (Anniversary, Birthday, New Hire campaign type), then your card will automatically be charged on the first day of the month for any projected gifts minus your remaining credits (if any).

For example, if your Anniversary campaign is projected to send $500 worth of gifts in May, then your CC will be charged for $500 on May 1st. However if you already have $50 in your remaining balance on May 1st, then your card will be charged $450 so that there is enough to cover your month's send.

This amount will be added to your remaining balance, and the system will pull from this balance to send your gifts. 🎁

If you send out additional gifts throughout the same month, it will dip into your available credits and your card will be charged for the difference if your credit runs out.


Video Tutorials 🖥️

Refer to one of these video tutorials on how to get your prepay set up!


🌟 If one of these options is preferred by you but you can’t access it in the Snappy Dashboard, please email billing@snappy.com and we will make sure to open the preferred method for you.


If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to our Product Support team!

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