Cancelling an Individual Membership

Similar to cancelling an event registration, the first thing you should consider when cancelling a membership is how you are going to treat the funds that will be returned as a result of the cancellation. Are they to be returned to the payment method used to purchase the membership such as the customer’s credit card or check?  Are they to be used to purchase another membership for the customer if your entity has multiple memberships enabled?  Will they be used to purchase other merchandise?  Do you want to charge a cancellation fee?  Or do you simply want to leave a credit on the customer’s account for future use?  How you answer these questions dictates how you should process the membership cancellation within netFORUM so that the returned funds are treated as you intend.

Note that you only need to process your membership cancellation using one of the methods described below depending on what you intend for the funds afterward.

This topic will explain or point you to four main methods of processing a membership cancellation depending upon how you want to process the funds returned. They are:

• Crediting a customer's credit card back when cancelling a membership
• Processing a partial credit card refund when cancelling a membership
• Crediting a customer's account to process a refund check for a cancelled membership
• Cancelling a membership without creating a credit or refund

Crediting a Customer's Credit Card when Cancelling a Membership

When you want to credit the customer’s credit card back for the full amount when processing a membership cancellation, the best method to do so is by cancelling the Invoice itself by clicking the Cancel Invoice icon from the Invoice Profile.

Step-by-step instructions for refunding the customer's credit card for a membership cancellation are demonstrated on Cancelling an Invoice for Credit Card Transactions.

Processing a Partial Credit Card Refund for a Membership Purchase

When you want to credit the customer's credit card back when processing a membership cancellation and charge a Cancellation Fee, the best method to do so is by cancelling from the Member Profile itself by clicking the Cancel Membership button. Unlike cancelling through the Invoice where a full refund is granted, this will allow you to charge a Cancellation Fee and create a partial credit to refund back to the customer's credit card.

Step-by-step instructions are demonstrated on Processing a Partial Credit Card Refund for a Membership.

Refunding a Customer’s Check Payment when Cancelling a Membership Purchase

When you want to refund the customer’s check when processing a membership cancellation for the full amount, the best method to cancel is by cancelling the Invoice itself by clicking the Cancel Invoice icon from the Invoice Profile. If you want to apply a Cancellation Fee, you should cancel through the Member Profile.

Step-by-step instructions for refunding a customer's check for an event cancellation are demonstrated on Cancelling an Invoice for a Check Transaction.

Cancelling a Membership without Creating a Credit or Refund

You may need to cancel a membership without crediting a customer's netFORUM account or credit card. For example, your business practice may dictate that after a certain time period has passed, such as half the membership, no refunds or credits are granted even if the membership is cancelled. If this is the case, you may cancel the membership without creating a credit or refund. The best method to do so is by cancelling through the Invoice itself by clicking the Cancel Invoice icon and clearing all create credit check boxes. This will cancel the membership as well without granting any credit or refund.

Step-by-step instructions are found at Cancelling an Invoice without Creating a Credit.