| Paying
for Hosting |
| This
document answers the most important questions
connected with billing: •How
do I pay?
•How do I create a billing profile?
•How do I enable automatic email invoicing?
•When do I pay?
•What do I pay for?
•How do I view my billing history?
•How do I view my overall charges?
•How do I become a pay user?
•How can I get my money back? |
| How do
I pay? |
| You
may have a possibility to choose between these
types of payment:
Credit card - this type of
payment allows you to pay for resources online.
Contact technical support if your credit card
brand is not supported. Sometimes, the account
may require system administrator to approve
of your registration, in which case the account
will not be available immediately.
Check - you must send a check
to the specified location. After the check is
received, your account is made available for
use. Check payments can be disabled.
Trial - depending on the
plan, trial registration may be disabled. If
you don't like the services, you won't have
to pay anything. If you like them and decide
to become a pay user, you will be charged for
the services you have used during the trial
period. When the trial period expires, your
account gets suspended and you receive a notification.
See How do I become a pay user? for more.
PayPal - this type of payment
allows you to pay for resources via online payment
provider. Your credit card info won't be stored
in your billing profiles and billing info won't
show in the control panel. In order to pay via
PayPal, you should have a web-based Personal
account registered in the PayPal system.
WorldPay - this type of payment
allows you to pay for resources via online payment
provider. Your credit card and billing info
won't be stored in your billing profiles. In
order to pay via WorldPay, you should have a
web-based Personal account registered in the
WorldPay system.
2CheckOut - you can pay via
web-based payment provider if you have online
account registered with 2CheckOut. When you
are to pay, you are sent to the 2CheckOut website
and all further payments take place beyond H-Sphere.
The scheme of 2CheckOut account in H-Sphere
is similar to a check account.
Important: If you choose
to pay with PayPal, WorldPay, or 2CheckOut,
you need to make an advance payment not less
than the registration fee. Until the payment
gets processed, you won't have your account
enabled and you won't be able to purchase hosting
resources and services, including control panel
account or domain registration.
|
| How Do
I Create A Billing Profile? |
| Billing
profile is the collection of details used to
contact you on financial or related matters.
You can have several billing profiles and use
them in turn, activating the one you would like
to be charged.
You can share one billing profile between your
accounts, if you have more than one. This means
you can pay with one card / receive bills at
one address for all your accounts. Settings
are configured individually for each billing
profile.
If you sign up as a trial user, no billing
profile is created. The system, however, keeps
track of all your purchases and includes them
into your bills available in the Online Invoice.
To edit a billing profile, select Billing Profile
in the Billing menu. You would be taken to a
page similar to this:
Edit Billing Profile: After
the edit, the old data will be preserved in
an old billing profile.
Receive the invoice by e-mail?:
With this option ON, you will receive invoices
that will inform you of accruals, charges and
your current balance status.
Change Billing Profile: If
you activate an alternative billing profile,
the current one becomes deactivated.
Delete Billing Profile: Permanently
delete the billing profile you don't need any
more. |
| How Do
I Enable Automatic Email Invoicing? |
| To
receive invoices by email, do the following:
•Select Billing Profile in the Billing
menu.
•On the page that shows, click the OFF
icon to Enable Receiving the invoice by e-mail.
With this option ON, you will receive invoices
by email. |
| When Do
I Pay? |
| Upon
the account activation, your new billing period
opens. It defines WHEN the system charges the
fees. For fee types see Online Price.
A new billing period opens:
•when your account is activated after
signup
•when your suspended account gets resumed
•when you switch to another plan
•when you change your billing period
A billing period closes:
•when you quit hosting
•when your account gets suspended
•when you switch to another plan
•when you change your billing period |
| What Do
I Pay For? |
To
see your plan's prices, select Online Price
in the Billing menu. The following table will
appear
Free: the minimum number of
units you initially get for free.
In Use: the number of units
you are currently using.
Max: the maximum number of
units you can have.
Setup: single-time amount payable
at the moment when a unit of this specific resource
is purchased beyond free units.
Recurrent: the amount payable
at the beginning of each payment period for
this type of resource. If a resource is purchased
in the middle of the payment interval, the recurrent
fee is calculated for the period from this moment
to the end of the payment interval. Recurrent
fee is refundable adjusted for refund percentage
(see below).
Usage (i.e. extra): payment
for every unit of this resource used over the
set quota. It is charged:
- at the end of each billing period;
- when you change to a different plan;
- when you delete this resource, in which case
it is calculated for the period from the beginning
of the payment interval to the moment of resource
deletion or plan change.
Usage fee is nonrefundable.
Refund Percentage: If you delete
this resource, you will be returned recurrent
fee adjusted for the refund percentage for the
days left to the end of the current billing
period when you quit using the resource.
E.g.: Your billing period is 1 month long.
It started on November 1 and will be closed
on November 30. Recurrent fee for dedicated
IP is $3. At the beginning of your billing period
you were charged $3 for dedicated IP. On November
10 you are switching to shared IP. With 10%
refund you will get back $0,2.
Refund is calculated according to the following
formula:
money to be refunded = (recurrent fee
x time left to the closure of the billing period)/
duration of the billing period.
IMPORTANT: Refunds are not
placed on credit card accounts. Instead, money
is either put on your hosting account balance
or is sent to you by check.
Empty Fees fields mean that nothing
is charged for this resource. If all fields
for a specific resource are empty, this resource
is completely free.
Billing is the same for most resources. However,
some resources have a special nature that requires
a different billing scheme: |
Resource |
Free |
In Use |
Max |
Setup |
Recurrent |
Usage |
Refund |
Standard
resources
|
Units that you
get for free
|
Units you are
currently using
|
Maximum number
of units you can have
|
Charged when
you purchase a new unit of this resource beyond
free units
|
Charged at the
beginning of each billing period for each unit
beyond free units
|
Charged at the
end of each billing period for each unit beyond
free units
|
% of the recurrent
fee for the remaining part of the billing period
debited to your account when you cancel the resource
|
Dedicated
IP Address
|
Number of dedicated
IPs that you get for free
|
Number of dedicated
IPs you are currently using
|
Maximum number
of dedicated IPs you can have
|
Charged when
you purchase a new dedicated IP beyond free units
|
Charged at the
beginning of each billing period for each dedicated
IP beyond free units
|
Charged at the
end of each billing period for each dedicated
IP beyond free units
|
% of the recurrent
fee for the remaining part of the billing period
debited to your account when you switch to shared
IP or otherwise cancel this resource |
OpenSRS
|
N/A
|
Domains registered
with OpenSRS
|
N/A
|
The cost of domain
registration for 1 year
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
% of the prorated
recurrent fee for the remaining part of the billing
period debited to your registration with OpenSRS
|
Web
quota
Mail quota
Real quota
|
MB of disk space
that you get for free
|
MB of disk space
that you are currently subscribed for. The size
of your web site must be smaller than web disk
quota by at least a couple of megabytes to ensure
correct performance of web statistics packages,
such as Webalizer or ModLogAn
|
MB of disk space
you can have. For web quota, this amount includes
both your web site and web statistics files
|
N/A
|
Charged at the
beginning of the billing period for the difference
between the limit and the free units
|
harged at the
end of the billing period for the amount used
beyond free units |
% of the recurrent
fee for the remaining part of the billing period
debited to your account for each canceled megabyte
of disk quota
|
Traffic
(all kinds |
GB
of traffic you don't pay for
|
Prorated
GB of traffic booked for the current billing month.
The billing month can start on any day of the
calendar month
|
N/A
|
N/A
|
Charged
once at the beginning of the billing period for
the difference between the limit and the free
units. This is what you pay for 1 GB of additionally
booked traffic
|
Charged
at the end of each month of the billing period
for the prorated amount you run up beyond the
l |
%
of the recurrent fee for the remaining part of
the whole billing period
|
MySQL/
PGSQL
db quota
|
MB of database
disk space you get for free
|
MB of database
space that you are currently subscribed for
|
MB of database
space you can have
|
N/A
|
Charged once
at the beginning of the billing period for the
difference between the limit and the free units
|
Charged at the
end of each month of the billing period for the
amount you use beyond the limit. |
% of the recurrent
fee for the remaining part of the billing period
debited to your account for each canceled megabyte
of database quota |
MS
SQL
db quota
|
MB of database
disk space that you get for free
|
MB of database
space that you are currently subscribed for. The
size of all your MS SQL databases can take no
more than half of the MS SQL database quota, leaving
the rest of the space for transaction logs
|
MB of MS SQL
database space you can have. This includes both
your databases and transaction log files
|
N/A
|
Charged once
at the beginning of the billing period for the
difference between the limit and the free units
|
N/A
|
% of the recurrent
fee for the remaining part of the billing period
debited to your account for each canceled megabyte
of database quota
|
Real
User
|
Simultaneous
connections to RealServer that you get for free
|
Simultaneous
connections to RealServer that you currently have
|
Simultaneous
connections to RealServer that you can have
|
N/A
|
Charged at the
beginning of the billing period for the difference
between the limit and the free units
|
N/A
|
% of the recurrent
fee for the remaining part of the billing period
debited to your account when you cancel the resource
|
| How do
I view my billing history? |
| To
see your charges by billing profiles for one
account, select Online Invoice in the Billing
menu. An invoice consists of consequent bills:
Balance shows how much money
you have on your balance. A negative balance
shows how much you owe for the services used.
This is usually appropriate for users who pay
by check and for credit card users whose credit
cards failed to be charged.
Credit restricts your ability
to buy new resources in case your credit card
fails to be charged or you have run out of your
'check' money.
Description: the name of your
current account.
Amount: the amount accrued
for the billing period. This amount consists
of accruals for all resources, including the
setup, recurrent and usage fee. However, it
does not include or depend on factual charges,
nor is it related to debits and credits to the
account. For example, if you were accrued $10
setup fee, the Amount will show $10.00,
even if your credit card has been immediately
credited by this amount.
From: the beginning of the
payment period.
To: the end of the payment
period. In the example illustrated above, Opened
means that the billing period has not finished.
A new bill is created for every new payment
interval The initial setup fee is put in a separate
bill.
To view details of any bill in the invoice,
click its Description in the first column. The
picture below illustrates details of the initial
setup bill:
Total shows the amount due for factual services
offered. It does not include most of the items
highlighted by yellow, such as items that were
immediately charged off the credit card, credits
or debits to the account balance by the administrator,
etc.
*To get a printable version of your bill, click
the Printer icon in the bill header which will
open it in a separate window suitable for immediate
printout (version 2.08 and higher). |
| How Do
I View My Overall Charges? |
| To
view charges for all your accounts, select Online
Sum invoice in the Billing menu then select the
billing profile. If you are just starting with
your account, you will see something like this:
Select the profile from the box and press the
Get Invoice button.
The Online Summary Invoice page will display
your bills for all accounts. |
| How do
I become a pay user? |
| If
you are a trial user, you will get this window
at the end of the trial period:
This means you need to become a pay user. For
this, all you need to do is create a billing
profile using the Billing Profile utility.
•Check payments: You
need to send a check payment for the amount
due plus, if possible, an amount to cover possible
future costs. After the administrator receives
your payment and credits it to your account,
you will become a pay user.
•Credit card payments:
If the credit card is valid, the outstanding
amount is charged, and you will become a pay
user.
In either case, if the account was suspended,
it resumes. |
| How Can
I Get My Money Back? |
| When
using H-Sphere, you can claim all your recurrent
and usage payments back if you decide to quit
hosting during the Money Back period. Mind that
the setup fees for any resources will not be
returned.
Not all plans allow to claim money back. To
find out whether this feature is available under
a plan, go to the signup/login page and click
the link that says: To compare available
hosting plans and price schemes, please click
here. In the form that appears, check the
boxes to the plans you want to compare or click
the Plan group link to compare grouped plans
and their price schemes. In the first section
of the chart that appears find Money Back
Guarantee.
To claim the money back, click Money Back
on the control panel home page. The following
page will appear:
After you click the first link, your account
will be suspended:
The amount due will be sent by check to the
address you specified in the Billing Info. |