Writing.Com 101

When Your Paid Membership Expires

So, you got yourself a paid membership on Writing.Com. Congratulations, and thank you for supporting our community!

Beginning about five or six weeks before your paid membership expires, you will start receiving weekly reminders to extend that membership. Whether you decide to renew or not, there are a few things you should know ahead of time.

If you choose not to renew, or if you plan to downgrade your membership, it's important to take a few steps in advance to avoid losing any of your important work.

This page explains what happens when a paid membership expires and how you can prepare for that expiration.

All active members on Writing.Com are always entitled to a Free membership. However, Free accounts have limitations on both the number of items allowed in your portfolio and the types of items you can host. When a paid membership expires, your portfolio must fit within those Free membership limits.

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Quick Summary
When your paid membership expires:

• Your account automatically returns to a Free membership
• Free accounts allow up to 10 items in your portfolio
• Items beyond those limits will become locked
• A four-week grace period begins
• If you renew during the grace period, your items are restored
• If you do not renew within four weeks, locked items are permanently deleted

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Step-by-Step: What Happens When Your Membership Expires

1. Your membership expires at noon

Paid memberships expire at noon (WDC time, Eastern US) on the expiration date listed on your My Account page.

Immediately after noon, paid membership features will no longer be available.

2. Your account returns to a Free membership

Every member always has access to a Free account.

Free accounts have limitations on:
• The number of items allowed in a portfolio
• The types of items that may be hosted

For a full list of these limitations, please see: Compare Free and Paid Membership Benefits

3. Your portfolio may be downsized

Free memberships allow up to 10 items in a portfolio.

If your portfolio contains more than 10 items when your paid membership expires, the system will automatically lock items that exceed the Free membership limits.

Locked items cannot be viewed or edited.

4. A four-week grace period begins

Writing.Com provides a four-week grace period after your paid membership expires.

During this time:
• Items outside the Free membership limits are locked
• They are not accessible by you or anyone else

If you renew your membership during this period, your portfolio will be restored. This process usually takes 15–20 minutes.

5. Locked items are deleted after four weeks

If the grace period expires and the membership has not been renewed, the system will permanently delete all locked items.

There is no way to recover deleted items.

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Frequently Asked Questions
When do paid memberships expire?

Your paid membership expires at noon (WDC time, Eastern US) on the preset expiration date. That date is always listed on your My Account page.

Once that time passes, you will no longer have access to paid membership features unless the membership is renewed.

What happens when paid memberships expire?

Your account will automatically return to a Free membership, and your portfolio will be downsized to the ten items allowed for Free accounts.

Free memberships are limited by both the number of items in a portfolio and the types of items that can be hosted. Any items that fall outside those limits will be locked from view and editing.

For specifics on what items are allowed in free and paid membership levels, please see Compare Free and Paid Membership Benefits.

What happens if my payment is late?

If your renewal payment has not been received by your paid membership expiration date, your account will automatically return to a Free membership. Your portfolio will then be downsized to the ten-item limit, and any items beyond that limit will be locked from viewing and editing.

Writing.Com provides a four-week grace period for late payments. During this time, locked items remain in your portfolio but cannot be accessed by you or anyone else.

If your payment is received and processed during the grace period, your portfolio will be restored. After the grace period ends, all locked items are permanently deleted. There is NO way to recover deleted items.

What happens if I can't renew?

Writing.Com provides a four-week grace period before permanently deleting items that exceed the Free membership limit. During this time, items outside the Free account limitations are locked and cannot be accessed by you or anyone else.

After the four-week grace period ends, all locked items are deleted permanently. There is NO way to recover deleted items.

The grace period allows time for you to renew your membership and keep your Writing.Com portfolio active. Once your payment is processed, your locked items will be restored. This process usually takes about 15–20 minutes.

If you renew at a lower membership level, only the items allowed within that membership level will be restored.

Even though the locked items cannot be accessed during the grace period, you can still export the main item types from your entire portfolio to your hard drive during this grace period using the Portfolio Export option located in the left-hand navigation under:

         Portfolio → Portfolio Export  

Your remaining options are to either allow the system to purge the locked items automatically after the four-week grace period ends, or purge them yourself using this link: Purge Locked Items  

We strongly recommend that you do NOT wait for your membership to expire, since you will not have control over which items are locked and purged.

Every member is always entitled to a Free membership. You can avoid the automatic locking and purging process by cleaning up your portfolio before your paid membership expires.

How can I avoid items being locked?

Renew your paid membership as soon as you receive the first reminder.
 Renew your paid membership before it expires.
 Borrow Gift Points from a friend, but only if you know you can pay them back.
 Ask for help in the community forums that assist with upgrades. See Points/Angel Resources.
 Enter contests, join reviewing groups that reward reviews, or review other members to earn Gift Points and keep your paid membership active.

Please do not solicit Gift Points from members you do not know. Be responsible and keep track of when your paid membership expires. Your expiration date is always listed on your My Account page.

Which ten items remain in your portfolio after the locking process happens?

Folders themselves are not considered lockable by the system, so your folders will remain visible in your portfolio. However, the items inside those folders may be locked if your portfolio exceeds the ten items allowed for Free memberships.

The following examples illustrate what may remain unlocked after the locking process. In these examples, "other items" refers to all items that are not folders.

 Your portfolio has 15 folders and 32 other items: All folders will remain unlocked, and all other items will be locked.

 Your portfolio has 5 folders and 32 other items: The five folders and the five oldest items (based on creation date) that fall within the Free membership limits will remain unlocked. All remaining items will be locked.

Remember that these examples show what the system does automatically after your paid membership expires. If you want to control which items remain available in your portfolio, you should make those changes before your membership expires.

How do I prepare in advance for downsizing?

If you know you will be moving to a lower membership level, it is important to prepare your portfolio before your current membership expires.

First, review the current membership limits here:
Compare Free and Paid Membership Benefits

Then take the following steps:

1. Reduce the number of items in your portfolio
Delete or store elsewhere any items that will not be allowed under the membership level you plan to use. Make sure your portfolio fits within the item limits for that membership level.

Note: If you delete items, remember to click the Purge Recycling Bin link on your My Portfolio page. Items in the recycling bin still count toward your portfolio total until they are purged.

2. Decide which items you want to keep
When a membership expires and the portfolio is reduced to a Free account, only the first ten items created will remain unlocked. Review the creation dates of your items and remove or store any items you do not want to lose.

Be sure to save copies of your stories or poems to your hard drive, disk, or other storage to avoid losing them altogether.

3. Check your email usage
Free accounts have lower email storage limits. Review your email usage and delete older messages so your usage stays below the Free account quota. It is recommended to reduce usage to about 80% of the limit to prevent interruptions in receiving new email.

Be sure to check your SentMail and Spam folders as well.

For a complete listing of what is available at each membership level, please see:
Free and Paid Membership Benefits
Compare Free and Paid Membership Benefits

Renewing or purchasing a membership

Purchase or renew your upgrade with Gift Points  
OR
Purchase a paid membership with Credit Card, PayPal, or Stripe in our Shop  

When can I renew my paid membership?

You can renew your paid membership at any time, up to the final day of your four-week grace period.

As soon as the payment is received, the renewal should process almost instantly.

However, it is always best to allow a little extra time in case there is a delay or your order requires manual processing by our staff.

How soon can I renew?

You can extend your current paid membership at any time. Any additional time you purchase will automatically be added to your existing expiration date.

For example, if your membership expires on March 15 and you purchase three additional months at the same level, your new expiration date will be June 15.

If you purchase a lower level membership in advance, that new level will take effect immediately after your current higher level membership expires. Be sure to downsize your portfolio to meet the limits of the lower membership level before it begins.

If you increase your membership level, the new level takes effect as soon as the upgrade is processed. The system will refund the remaining time on your current membership in the form of Gift Points. No portfolio adjustments are needed in this case, but you will need to log out and log back in for the new membership level to take effect.

For complete details on this process, please see: Increase Your Paid Membership Level.

I have a Authorized Secondary Account (ASA). What happens to this account when my paid membership runs out?

A primary paid membership (Upgraded or higher) is required to maintain an ASA. If your primary membership expires, you will not be able to use the secondary account again until the primary membership is renewed. The system verifies that an active primary paid membership exists before allowing you to log into the ASA.

If the ASA membership itself expires, the same procedures and limitations that apply to expired primary accounts will apply to the ASA as well. In that case, the secondary account will remain inaccessible until that membership is renewed.

For more information about Authorized Secondary Accounts, please see Authorized Secondary Accounts (ASA).

Keep in mind that each portfolio is limited by the membership level of that account. This is especially important when downsizing from Premium to Upgraded status. For exact limits, please see Compare Free and Paid Membership Benefits.

I was gifted a paid membership from someone (or anonymous). Will I have to pay when the gift runs out?

No. When the gifted membership ends, your account will simply return to a Free membership. A free account is always available to you on Writing.Com, so you can continue reading, writing, and participating in the community.

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Free and Paid Membership Benefits
"Free & Paid Membership Information" 
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