Subscriptions Payments FAQ
Fees
Skool charges 2.9% + 30c /transaction.
This is cheaper than Stripe because Stripe charges an additional 1.5% for international cards and 0.5% for subscriptions. Most people switching from Stripe to Skool will save 1-2%.
Payouts
Skool pays out your available balance every Wednesday directly to your bank account.
Currencies
All prices on Skool are in USD. Payouts are in your local currency.
VAT/sales tax
Skool handles VAT/sales tax compliance for you. You don’t need to register for VAT or do anything. All VAT/sales tax liability is on Skool, not you. Payouts from Skool to you are VAT/sales tax exempt because Skool is a US company. When a customer is in the EU, Skool will automatically add VAT to the purchase price, capture it, and remit it to the government.
Refund policy
Skool’s policy is to let Creators offer refunds to Members at their discretion. Skool reserves the right to issue refunds, at its discretion, depending on circumstances. In most cases, Skool will not refund on behalf of Creators.
Bank statement
Your members will see charges on their bank statements like this:
Every community has its own unique statement descriptor so members know what the charge was for. This reduces support tickets and disputes. The statement descriptor links to a unique support page that looks like this:
Receipts
Your members will receive receipts automatically via email. They can see them from their purchase history tab in their user settings too. Receipts are in your community name with your support email on them. They look like this:
Support
Creators are responsible for supporting their members in Skool. Skool puts your support email on your support page (customers go here from their bank statements' unique link) and your receipts. We encourage members to DM admins or email your support email.
Disputes
If a member disputes a payment, you’ll see a notification saying “1 disputed payment”.
You can accept or counter a dispute. Accepting marks it as lost. Countering asks you to submit evidence like this:
Product description: Describe your program deliverables.
Access Activity: Their contributions, like posts and comments, as well as their daily activity. The member should be listed in the Churned section of the Members tab, but you can typically find their activity by searching their full name.
Additional Information: If you want to add any off platform details, you can add them in the additional details section.
When a member disputes a payment their subscription will be cancelled immediately, and they will be removed from your group at the end of their billing cycle. Disputed payments will be deducted from your balance and credited back if won.
Declined payments
When your member's payment declines, Skool automatically follows up with them via email and retries charging their card multiple times over 14 days. When the member logs into Skool, they’ll see a red sticky bar at the bottom saying “Your payment has been declined”. Members can update their payment method themselves. If a member fails to update their payment method Skool will remove them from your group after 14 days.
Members can help themselves
Members can update their payment method, download their receipts, and cancel their subscriptions themselves. This dramatically reduces the logistics of running a membership business and provides a seamless experience for your members.
What happens when member cancels their subscription?
When a member cancels their subscription, they will remain a member of your group until the end of their current billing cycle when they’ll be removed automatically.
Connecting your bank account
Go to your Group settings >> Subscriptions >> Add price. You’ll see this prompt telling you to connect your bank account. You must be the Creator or a billing manager to do this. Detailed steps here.
Click “Continue”, select the country where your bank account is, and you’ll see this screen.
Follow the instructions to complete the setup
You’ll input some information and connect your bank account so you can get paid. You may have to verify your identity depending on your country.
This is NOT a regular Stripe account
It’s a service for sending payouts to your bank account. All payment processing happens on the Skools merchant, we use this Stripe connection for sending you payouts every Wednesday.
Supported countries for the payout
Albania, Antigua & Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia a Ethiopia, Finland, France, Gambia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Guatemala, Guyana, Hong Kong SAR China, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao SAR China, Madagascar, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Morocco, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Norway, Oman, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, St. Lucia, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Algeria, Angola, Azerbailan, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Botswana, Brunei, Gabon, Kazakhstan, Laos, Monaco, Mozambique, Pakistan, San Marino, Taiwan
Adding a price
Go to your Group settings >> Subscriptions >> Add price. You must be the Creator or a billing manager of the group to do this.
Once you’ve added a price, it will look like this. “Current price” is the price shown on your About page - the price new members will have to pay to join your group.
Changing price
You can change your price by adding a new price and setting it as the “current price”.
What happens to existing members? (grandfathering)
Existing members will be grandfathered on the price they’re currently paying, this could be free. They won't be interrupted at all.
Example #1: If you had a free group with 100 free members then you set the price to $33 /month, new members would have to pay $33 /month to join, but existing members would remain free.
Example #2: If you had a $99 /month group with 100 members paying $99 /month, then you set the price to $150 /month, new members would have to pay $150 /month to join, but existing members would remain on their $99 /month price (this is called grandfathering).
Can you invite free members to a paid group?
Yes, when an Admin invites a member via email, Zapier, or .CSV import — they will automatically bypass the paywall and get instant free membership. This is useful for inviting existing customers, your team members, etc.