Members Without a Card

A member can be active with no card on file: you activated them without one, or their card was removed. MemberZone makes sure they are never charged by surprise, reminds them to add a card before it matters, and puts them on hold (rather than into failed-payment retries) if their renewal arrives first.

Members you never intend to charge are different: make them a comp instead. Comps never get card reminders or card links. See Comps and Lifetime Memberships.

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When a Renewal Finds No Card

When a member reaches their renewal or first charge with no card on file:

1. Their membership is put on hold. It is paused, the same as after a failed payment, so nothing is fulfilled for a period nobody paid for.
2. They get one email: "Add your card to keep your {program} membership" (the email uses your business's own word, such as club or program). It says the membership is on hold, how much adding a card will charge, and has an Add your card button. The link works for as long as your card email settings say (72 hours unless you change it).
3. No payment-failed emails or retries. Retrying a charge with no card can't succeed, so this is the only email they get about it.
4. Adding a card resumes them. As soon as they add a card, what they owe is charged and the hold lifts automatically. You don't need to click anything.

If they add a card that is then declined, it becomes an ordinary failed payment and the usual retries and emails take over. See Failed Payments and Retries.

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Card Reminders Before the Date

Members with no card who are staying on get a reminder 14 days and 3 days before their paid-through date (or their first charge date, if they haven't been charged yet), unless you change the days. Reminders go out at 9:00 AM in your business's time zone.

• Subject: "Add your card before {date} to keep your {program} membership", or "Add your card before your first {program} charge on {date}".
• Each reminder has a fresh Add your card link and says nothing is charged before that date.
• Members who are cancelling or pausing at the end of their period aren't reminded.
• A member who added a card in the meantime is skipped.

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Card Email Settings

Go to Settings > Communication and click Edit on Card emails (you need the Manage Group Settings permission). These settings apply to every email that asks a member to add a card: the card links you send, the reminders and the on-hold email.

• Card links work for: how long an Add your card link works, from 1 hour to 30 days, in hours or days. The default is 72 hours (3 days). When you send a card link, MemberZone tells you how long it will last.
• Intro (optional): a line in your own words, up to 1,000 characters, shown at the top of each add-your-card email. It appears in these emails even if you customized them under Marketing > Transactional.
• Reminders before the card is needed: up to five reminders, each 1 to 60 days before the paid-through or first charge date. The default is 14 and 3 days. Remove them all to send no reminders.

When a link has expired

Every card email says how long its link works and that an expired link can still be opened. A member who opens an expired link sees This link has expired and can click Send me a new link:

• The new link always goes to the email address on file, never anywhere else. Members with no real email address can't request one and are asked to contact you.
• They can ask once every 10 minutes and at most 3 times a day.
• A card email that bounced or failed to send doesn't count toward that limit, so the member can still get a new link.

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Sending a Card Link

Open the member from People:

• A staged member: in the "No payment method" notice, click Send Link.
• An active member waiting on a card (card pending): in the No-card activation section, click Send card link. Click it again to send a fresh link.

The Send card link sidebar shows who it goes to and how long the link works. The card they add becomes their default payment method. For a staged member you can also tick Charge and activate membership when card is added, with Waive enrollment fee and Skip first subscription charge, and see what they'll be charged. That option isn't available for a member staged with a paid-through date: activate them on their staged terms, and the link only saves their card. Sending a card link needs the Manage CRM permission.

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The "Members Without a Card" Email

Each morning, after the reminders, your business's contact email gets a Members without a card email when there is something to report:

• Members who reached their renewal date without a card yesterday, now on hold: their program, paid-through date and amount owed. Adding a card charges what they owe and resumes them automatically.
• Members we couldn't remind because we have no real email address for them, with the date they need a card by. Please reach them another way.

No email is sent on days with nothing to report.

To turn it off: go to Marketing > Transactional, open Members without a card (under Internal notifications) and switch it off. You need the Manage Email Templates permission. Its wording is managed by MemberZone.

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Members With No Real Email Address

Some imported members have a placeholder address instead of a real email, for example phone-only loyalty members brought in from your POS. MemberZone never emails a placeholder address, from any part of the platform. For these members:

• Reminders and the on-hold email aren't sent; they're listed in the Members without a card email instead.
• A card link can't be emailed to them: "{name} has no real email address, so the card link can't be emailed. Add their email first." Add their email on their profile, then send the link.

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Charges That Need a Card

Any extra charge you or the member start is checked first. With no card on file it stops with "Add a card first." and nothing is charged, so no past-due bill is opened and the member isn't paused. This applies to:

• tier upgrades (the prorated difference),
• switching programs,
• shipping charges,
• overages on a selection,
• top-ups when an order costs more than was charged,
• cancellation fees,
• paying an outstanding bill.

Ask the member to add a card (or send them a card link), then try again.

No cancellation fee before the first charge. If the member hasn't paid for their current period yet (they were activated without a card, or their first charge is still ahead), cancelling never charges a cancellation fee, and downgrading their tier gives no credit, because there is nothing paid to refund or forfeit.

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Activating Members Without a Card

Sometimes you want a member active before they've given you a card, for example someone who paid at the counter or a member moving over from another system. You choose the date they are paid through; nothing is charged until then.

Turning it on

Two things are needed:

1. The feature is on for your business. It is off by default; contact MemberZone support to turn on Activate Members Without a Card.
2. You have the Manage Comps and No-Card Activation permission. (It used to be called Activate Without a Card.) Owners have it. For anyone else, add it to their role under Settings > Team (it is in the CRM group). It must be granted for the whole business, not just certain locations. Existing roles named "Admin" received it automatically. See Team and Permissions.

When either is missing, the options below don't appear.

Where you can do it

• Add Member: tick Activate without a card ("They're active now with nothing charged today, and add a card before their first charge.").
• A staged member's profile: click Activate without card.
• Several staged members at once: select them, choose Activate, then pick Activate without card ("Every selected member is active now with nothing charged today."). The batch runs in the background like any bulk activation. See Bulk Member Actions.
• From a spreadsheet import: add a Paid Through column. See Importing Members With a Paid-Through Date below.

What you choose

• Paid through: the date they're paid through. Pick a day from 2 days to 2 years ahead. Nothing is charged before it.
• Fulfillment (for programs that ship or hand over items; the labels use your program's word, such as shipment, box or share):
  • Current shipment already paid: they're fulfilled from the one they join now.
  • Starts at first paid shipment: their first one is the one their first charge pays for.
• Send welcome email.

A preview shows exactly what happens, for example "$0 today, first charge Nov 1, 2026". The signup fee is waived and nothing is charged today. If the member is taxed where they receive their membership, they need a pickup location or a shipping address with a state, so their first charge can be taxed.

For programs billed per release, there is no date to pick: the enrollment fee is waived, the initial purchase is skipped, and their first charge is their next release.

Why the first charge date can differ from the date you picked

The first charge always lands on one of the plan's billing dates, on or after the date you picked:

• Plans that bill everyone on the same date move it forward to the plan's next billing date, so the member gets the extra days free.
• Weekly plans move it to the next day that falls on the weekday they joined.
• Plans billed from each member's own date charge on the day you picked.
• For programs with a shared schedule of shipments or pickups, the first charge is never earlier than the billing period of the first one they can still receive, so they never pay for one they don't get.

The preview always shows the real first charge date.

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Importing Members With a Paid-Through Date

When you move members over from another system, the contact import can bring their paid-through date with them. Add a Paid Through column to your spreadsheet (the Download template file has one). Columns named like "Expiration Date", "Expires", "Renewal Date", "Next Billing" or "Valid Until" are matched to it automatically, but a card's own expiry date never is.

Each row is checked against the program and plan it imports into, with the same rules as activating without a card:

• The date must be 2 days to 2 years ahead, and readable.
• If the plan bills everyone on the same date, the row notes "Paid through {date}, the {plan}'s billing date": that is the date they'll actually be paid through.
• Rows for programs billed per release, or with no program, ignore the date and say so.

Before you import, choose for the whole batch:

• Fulfillment for paid-through members (for programs that ship or hand over items): Current shipment already paid or Starts at first paid shipment (in your program's word).
• Activate them now ("Nothing is charged today. Without this they stay staged until you activate them."). Activating needs the feature turned on and the Manage Comps and No-Card Activation permission; staging them doesn't. When the import finishes, they're activated in the background; track it in the header.

Members you leave staged keep their paid-through date. Their row on People reads "Paid through {date}, no card", and activating them later uses that date, whichever way you activate them.

Importing a staged member again (same email, program and plan) updates them instead of skipping them, including their paid-through date. Use this to correct dates in bulk.

A row whose Paid Through cell says "Lifetime" or "Never" is imported as a lifetime comp instead. See Comps and Lifetime Memberships.

Rewards for members you bring over

Members you bring over already had this period's benefits on their old system. Every membership the import creates is marked as brought over, and so is every member activated by a no-card activation batch MemberZone runs for your migration. The mark stays if you move a staged member to another program.

For a reward set to New members at signup, existing members at their first renewal, these members start getting it at their first renewal here: their paid-through date (or the end of their first billing period), or the first anniversary of the comp for a comp. Until then their reward card shows Starts {date}. Members you add and activate by hand, with or without a card, are new members and start right away. Rewards left on Right away start for everyone at once. See Rewards and Discounts.

Rewards that reset Each membership month or Each membership week count from the day a member's benefits start, so for a member you brought over they line up with their first renewal here.

Members staged with a paid-through date

• They always activate on their staged terms: from their profile, in a bulk activation (the Activate on their staged terms option, or Charge cards, which activates them on their terms instead of charging today), or with Activate them now. Nothing is charged today; their first charge is on that date, on the card on file if they have one.
• A card link can't activate them. It only saves their card. Activate them on their staged terms, then send a link if they still need to add a card.
• To change their date, use Set paid-through date (below) or import them again.

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Setting a Paid-Through Date for Several Members

On People, select staged members or card pending members of subscription programs and click Set paid-through date. Pick the date (and, for staged members in programs that ship or hand over items, where fulfillment starts), then click Set for {n} members. Each member shows whether it worked.

• Staged members are staged to activate without a card on that date. This needs the feature turned on and the Manage Comps and No-Card Activation permission.
• Card pending members are paid through the new date instead of their current one, earlier or later, with their first charge on the plan's first billing date on or after it. The same rules apply as changing one member's paid-through date. This needs the permission.

You can set it for up to 500 members at a time.

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Card Pending Members

A member activated without a card, whose paid-through date is still ahead, is card pending.

• On People > Contacts, filter Card on file to Card pending. Their row reads "Card pending, first charge {date}".
• In exports, the Card Pending and Paid Through columns show who they are and when they're paid through.
• On their profile, the No-card activation section shows the first charge date, who activated them without a card and when, and the latest paid-through change.
• In their member portal, a banner reads "Add a card before {date}": "Your membership is paid through {date}. Add a card to keep it going after that. You won't be charged before then." They can add the card right there.
• At the register, Toast, Tender and Shift4 show Card pending when staff look them up, so staff can ask for a card while the member is at the counter. See Member ID and Member Details at the Register.

They can add a card from that banner at any time. To email them a card link, click Send card link in the No-card activation section of their profile, or ask Zoe.

Changing a paid-through date

On a card-pending member's profile, click Change paid-through date in the No-card activation section (it is also in the membership's actions menu, in place of Reschedule billing; both need the Manage Comps and No-Card Activation permission, and without it neither shows). The Change Paid-Through Date sidebar shows the date they're currently paid through. Pick the new date, earlier or later: any day you could pick when activating without a card, from 2 days to 2 years ahead. A live preview shows when their first charge will be. Their first charge moves to the plan's first billing date on or after the date you pick (see why it can differ), and they stay active with nothing charged until then. If they start at their first paid shipment or pickup, that moves with it. To do this for several members at once, use Set paid-through date on People.

• Scheduled changes come first. If the member has a pause, cancellation or plan change scheduled, the first charge must land before it, so later dates can't be picked. Remove the scheduled change to move it further out.
• Moving it later cancels any orders already opened for the shipments or pickups they're no longer paying for.
• Settle any outstanding balance first.
• You need the Manage Comps and No-Card Activation permission. Staff without it don't see the button.
• You can pick who made the change under Changed by. The profile records who changed it, when, and the old and new dates.
• Rewards that reset Each membership period treat the change as part of the current period: it ends on the new date, rather than a new period starting with a fresh allowance.

Reschedule billing is for members with a card. It refuses a card-pending member ("This member has no card yet, so their first charge is their paid-through date. Change their paid-through date instead.").

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Asking Zoe

Zoe can activate a staged member without a card when you ask for it explicitly. Zoe asks you for the paid-through date and, for programs with fulfillment, whether they get the current shipment or pickup, then shows a confirmation before doing anything. Zoe can also email a card link to a staged member or a card-pending member. Both need the Manage CRM permission, and activating without a card also needs the feature and permission above.