Payment Options

Acceptable Payment Methods

Hostwinds accepts the following types of payment methods.

• Major Credit Cards
• PayPal
• Alipay
• Cryptocurrencies

Please note that you must log in to the Hostwinds Client Area to make any payment changes outlined in this section.

Managing Credit Card Payments

Hostwinds acceptable major credit cards are:

• Visa
• Visa Electron
• Mastercard
• Discover
• American Express

Hostwinds keeps just one credit card on file at a time. Therefore, we recommend you consistently use your most updated credit card on file to avoid interruption for subscription-based services upon their renewal.

Adding or updating your credit card

New customers wishing to pay with a credit card will add these payment details during checkout for any of our services. However, the Manage Credit Card option in the Client Area allows individuals to add a credit card to their account if one does not already exist. Additionally, individuals can use the Manage Credit Card area to review their current credit card or update its details.

The following are required regarding entering credit card information.

• Credit card number
• Credit card expiration date
• CVV number (the number typically on the back of the card)

Once your credit card information is entered, select Save Changes.

Please note your last credit card details will be deleted if you update your current credit card information.

Navigating to your credit card area

From your Client Area dashboard, you can access the Manage Credit Card link in two ways:

• Select the Billing dropdown link from the top menu and then select Manage Credit Card.
• On the top menu at the far right of the dashboard, select the "Hello, (your name here)" dropdown link and then select Manage Credit Card.

Managing PayPal Payments

A PayPal Billing Agreement is a pre-approved automatic payment method that Hostwinds requires to be in place to pay via PayPal. Using PayPal's Billing Agreement allows Hostwinds to charge your account for due invoices and new orders automatically.

Adding or updating your PayPal

New customers wishing to pay with PayPal will be redirected after completing their order to enter their details. However, the PayPal Billing Agreement option in the Hostwinds Client Area allows current customers to create a New Billing Agreement if one does not already exist. Additionally, customers can use their PayPal Billing Agreement area to review their current billing agreement or create a new one.

You can create new billing agreements by selecting the Create New Billing Agreement within the PayPal Billing Agreement area. After selecting this option, you will be routed to PayPal's web application for further details and submission.

Hostwinds supports multiple PayPal Billing Agreements on the same account. However, only one PayPal Billing Agreement on file can be selected as the primary. The primary agreement is indicated by a "*" next to the agreement ID. By default, the primary billing agreement will be charged before attempting other agreements on file if it fails to avoid interruption for subscription-based services upon renewal.

Further management of Paypal agreements, such as deleting them, is performed within the individual's PayPal account.

Navigating to your PayPal Billing area

From your Client Area dashboard, you can access the PayPal Billing Agreement area by:

• Select the Billing dropdown link from the top menu and then PayPal Billing Agreements.

Managing Alipay Payments

The option to make payments with Alipay is only available within our client area, checkout cart, or invoice if you come from an IP address in China. Additionally, if needed, be sure to set your country to China within your account profile.

Adding or updating your Alipay

New customers wishing to pay with Alipay will select this payment option during checkout. However, customers can also pay using Alipay by selecting from the payment option within individual invoices.

Upon choosing Alipay as your payment for the first time, you will be directed to their website to complete your Alipay Billing Agreement. After completion, an Alipay Billing Agreement (ID) within your Hostwinds account will be added.

Individuals who already established an Alipay Billing Agreement (ID) at Hostwinds can manage it from their Billing dropdown and select Manage Alipay Agreements. Here an individual can review their current agreement and choose to cancel it by selecting the Cancel button.

Hostwinds keeps only one Alipay Billing Agreement (ID) on file. Therefore, we recommend you consistently use your most updated Alipay Agreement on file to avoid interruption for subscription-based services upon their renewal.

Navigating to your Alipay Billing Area

From your Client Area dashboard, you can access the Alipay Agreement area by

• Select the Billing dropdown link from the top menu and then Manage Alipay Agreements
  

Managing Cryptocurrency Payments

Hostwinds accepts many of the most popular coins for those wishing to pay with cryptocurrency.

Cryptocurrency payments cannot automatically pay for subscription services upon their due date. Therefore individuals choosing to pay with cryptocurrency will need to manually pay their unpaid invoices unless they establish a different payment method, such as Credit Card or PayPal Billing Agreement.

Cryptocurrency Expectations

The following can be expected when paying invoices with cryptocurrency.

• Accounts that pay with cryptocurrency will receive email notifications when an invoice is due.
• Due invoices must be manually paid by selecting cryptocurrency as the payment option within the owed invoice.
• Cryptocurrency payments will experience a small inflated price than what is displayed on Hostwinds invoices as they proceed to our crypto processor for payment. This is because of the volatility of the currency and transfer costs. Therefore, the amount displayed and owed through the crypto processor is required to make full payment of a Hostwinds invoice.
• Because of cryptocurrency volatility, we encourage a ticket to our billing department if sufficient funds were sent but not readily processed within a couple of hours of submission.
• Invoices may remain unpaid until our crypto processor has verified that the payment was received at Hostwinds. Once received, the invoice will be marked as paid. Note that received payments may take 24 hours to reflect if sufficient funds were already verified and sent.
• Per our Terms of Service and Refund Policy, we only provide approved refunds as an account credit.

Navigating to pay with Cryptocurrency

To pay an unpaid invoice with cryptocurrency, proceed by following the below instructions.

1. Go to the invoice you wish to pay by selecting My Invoices from the Billing dropdown. Then select the row of the unpaid invoice you want to pay.
2. Select the payment options dropdown within the unpaid invoice page and select Cryptocurrency.
3. Next, select Pay Now underneath the dropdown after the selection. Once done, you will arrive at a NowPayments checkout page.
   1. The total owed displayed during the checkout with NowPayments (our crypto processor) is required to fulfill the Hostwinds invoice.
4. Select the cryptocurrency you wish from the list of accepted choices and select Complete checkout when ready. Then, continue through the prompts to process the payment.

Changing Primary Payment Type

Hostwinds requires a payment type on file unless paying by cryptocurrency because our services are subscription-based and to avoid unintended service suspension or termination.

However, customers can change their primary payment type by following the steps outlined.

1. Add your preferred payment type by following the instructions informed above.
2. Navigate to your account dashboard, select "Hello, (Name)," and choose Edit Account Details.
3. Under Payment Method, choose the preferred payment type.
4. Select Save Changes
5. Your primary payment type should now be different and billed accordingly.

A ticket to our billing department may be created to confirm or review results.

Failed Payments

Failed payments may be the result of many factors, such as but not limited to an expired credit card on file, an Address Verification Service (AVS) mismatch or a deleted PayPal Billing Agreement.

If you cannot resolve the issue, we encourage a ticket to our billing department for further review. Our billing department can help check the following details.

• Open the account and check for any active orders. Then check to see if the order is marked paid.
• Check whether Hostwinds held the order for manual review or unpaid (true negative).
• Attempt troubleshooting errors, such as AVS mismatch, billing error codes, or an attempt to retry the payment until success.
• Finally, if the payment method does not work, we recommend another supported payment method.

Please note once a payment method is successfully accepted, all pending services or due invoices on an account will be charged automatically unless the orders or services are specifically canceled ahead of time.

New Orders

New orders can expect their status to remain pending until a successful payment method is established or processed.

Current Services

Services may result in suspension or termination if an invoice remains unpaid. Suppose the payment method on file fails upon an invoice due date. In that case, the customer will receive overdue notifications to the email address on their Hostwinds account. The payment method will need to be resolved or updated to avoid such interruptions or discontinuation of services.