Payment methods

How prepaid credit works

Your HourlyVPS account holds a balance in US dollars, called account credit. You add to it in the customer portal and use it to pay for your servers, which are billed like this:

• Account credit

  Your account runs on prepaid credit, with a minimum top-up of $5.

• Initial credit

  Ordering a server takes an initial credit of $5 ($9 for Chrono C32, $16 for Chrono C64). It is prepaid credit, not a fee: the server’s hourly usage is deducted from it, and when it runs out you top up.

• Hourly billing

  Every server is billed by the hour: the plan’s hourly rate is deducted from the server’s prepaid balance for every hour it exists, powered on or off, until you delete it.

• Monthly cap

  Every plan is capped at 500 hours per billing period: the monthly price is 500 times the hourly rate, and after 500 billed hours (about 20.8 days) the rest of the period is free, so a server left on all month pays exactly the monthly price and never more. A billing period is one month from your order date, not the calendar month, and the cap resets every period.

• Low balance

  When a server’s balance is down to about 24 hours of usage, you get a top-up invoice; at zero balance the server is suspended, and a suspended server is deleted 7 days later.

Each server has its own prepaid balance, and the initial credit you pay when you order it goes into that balance. Until the checkout label is updated, the initial credit may appear there as a “Setup Fee”; it is the same prepaid amount. Pay top-up invoices in the portal to keep a server running. Every top-up, invoice and charge is listed in the portal.

If a server’s balance reaches zero, the server is suspended; our Terms of Service explain what happens next and when data is deleted.

Paying by card

Pay with a credit or debit card on the payment page of our card processor. The card brands it accepts are shown on that page. Your bank may ask you to confirm the payment, for example with a one-time code (3-D Secure).

Card numbers are entered on, or sent directly to, the processor. We receive only limited details, such as the card brand, the last four digits and the expiry date, so that you can recognize the card in your account. A card top-up is added to your credit when the processor confirms the payment.

Paying with cryptocurrency

You can also top up with cryptocurrency through our crypto payment processor. The coins and networks it accepts are listed at checkout. We do not repeat the list here, because the processor’s list can change and the checkout is always current.

• Your top-up is credited in US dollars, at the amount the processor confirms after the network confirmations it requires.
• Network fees are yours.
• Check the amount, the network and the address before you send. A payment with the wrong amount, on the wrong network or to the wrong address may not be recoverable, although we will try to help.
• If money is ever paid back to a wallet, for example after a duplicate payment, we send the US-dollar amount that was credited, converted at the processor’s rate on the day we send it, minus the network fee, to an address you confirm in writing.

Currency and taxes

Prices are in US dollars only and exclude taxes; any VAT or sales tax is added on the invoice according to your country.

Refunds and account credit

Usage is metered, so there are no refunds to claim: you pay only for the hours a server exists, never more than the monthly price in a billing period. Account credit is not paid out to your card or crypto wallet unless the law requires it.

Account credit is not paid out to a card, bank account or crypto wallet, except in the cases our Refund and Account Credit Policy lists, such as a duplicate payment, a billing error, or an account we close before you use it, or where the law requires it.

Chargebacks and payment disputes

If something on your statement looks wrong, write to [email protected] first. Billing questions are usually solved faster directly than through a bank.

If you open a chargeback, we may suspend the account while the dispute is open and remove credit that came from the disputed payment. Charges for service you have already used remain due. Repeated or unfounded chargebacks can lead to the account being closed. The details are in section 10 of the Refund and Account Credit Policy.

What we do not accept

We accept card and cryptocurrency only. We do not take PayPal, and we never ask you to pay by gift card or into a personal account. If someone asks you to do that in our name, it is a scam: forward the message to [email protected].

When we add or remove a payment method, the change and its date are recorded in our changelog.

Checks on payments

Every top-up goes through automated fraud and sanctions checks, and a few get a closer look before or after they go through. Our Verification Policy explains when that happens and what we may ask for.

Questions about a payment

Write to [email protected], or open a ticket in the billing department of the portal. Include the invoice or transaction ID. We aim to reply within 2 business days; the contact page lists every address and reply-time target.