Using your free months

Free months pay for Premium

Each free month saved to your account is one month of Premium on a circle. They don't expire. You can use them on their own, or together with months you buy. They run first, and they never change what bought months cost.

You can use your own free months on any circle you're an active member of, whoever owns it or pays for it. Premium covers everyone in the circle.

Where to use them

• In the circle. Choose Circle options, then Settings, and under Premium, where a free circle shows Upgrade to Premium, choose the button to use your free months.
• In My Account. Under Free months in My Account, a line shows your free months, for example "48 free months of Premium saved to your account." Choose Use free months.
• On your home page. While your home page's welcome is showing, it tells you about them, for example 48 free months of Premium are on your account, for any circle you belong to. The rest of the time, a banner shows while you have free months left, for example You have 48 free months of Premium! Choose Use free months. The banner goes away once you've used them all.

When you choose Use free months, if you belong to one circle, its Add Premium sheet opens. If you belong to several, choose one under Which circle?: each circle shows its name and whether it's a Free circle or Premium. If you don't have a circle to use them on yet, you can create one.

How to use them

1. Open the circle's Add Premium sheet one of the ways above.
2. Choose how many of your free months to use.
3. If you like, add months or years to buy as well. They cost the same as they do without free months, and you pay for them once by card.
4. Check what you're adding, then confirm. Premium runs on your free months first, then on any months you bought.

Your free months leave your balance when you place the order. If you're only using free months, no card is charged. If the circle has a subscription, all the months you add, free and bought together, push its next renewal later.

If your card is declined, your free months stay set aside so you can try again. If you don't finish paying for the months you're buying, they're put back in your balance. This can take a little while.

Free months can't start a subscription. While they're applied, you can't choose a subscription yet. You can start one after your free months have run out.

For the rest of the sheet, see Adding Premium to a circle.

Where free months come from

A free month can come from a thank-you from us or something our team added to your account. While they last, they work exactly like paid Premium.

If you're a beta tester, each new circle you start uses 12 of your free months straight away, so it begins with a year of Premium at no cost. This happens only when you have at least 12 months available. With fewer, the circle starts on the free version and every month stays in your account for you to use.

When the circle already has Premium

If the circle is already running on your free months, the new months extend its supply. If it has a card subscription, whoever pays for it, your months move its next renewal date later by that many months, so the circle keeps Premium and the card isn't charged until then. If the card has a payment that needs attention, or the new date would be more than two years away, the sheet tells you, so you can update the card first or choose fewer months. If it's running on someone else's free months, your months are added after theirs. If that time is cancelled, or the circle is paused or deleted, months that haven't started yet aren't returned. Adding free months doesn't pause or cancel card billing.

If the card subscription is already set to end, the end date shown for the circle moves later to include the free months. That's the date the circle goes back to the free version, and the date we warn you about.

If the owner was already told a card subscription is ending and free months are then added to it, we email them to say the circle carries on and nobody's spot will be paused: the card still stops, and the free months keep the circle going after it.

When your free months run out

Free months are used one at a time, and when the last one is used, the circle goes back to the free version: see When Premium ends.

To keep Premium going, anyone in the circle can add Premium: choose Circle options, then Settings, then Add Premium. You can also use more free months from Free months in My Account.

Your free months in My Account

The Free months card in My Account shows how many free months you have and, once you've used some, how many you've used, for example "18 free months of Premium saved to your account, 30 used so far." They never expire. Choose Use free months there to use them.

Choose How I got these to see your history, with the columns Date, What, Months, and Balance. Months you used show with a minus sign, like −12. Months you received show with a plus sign, like +48. The balance column shows what was left after each one, for example 18 left.

When a circle is paused or deleted, or its Premium is cancelled

If a circle is paused, or its Premium is cancelled, the month already under way runs to its end, and months that haven't started yet aren't returned. That includes free months waiting behind a card subscription. Nothing anyone shared is deleted.

Pausing a circle doesn't change card billing: cancel the card subscription yourself if you want it to stop. Reopening the circle doesn't use any months.

If the person who pays for the circle's subscription leaves the circle or is removed, the subscription ends after its current paid period, and months that haven't started yet aren't returned.

If the owner deletes a circle, its Premium ends straight away with no refund, and free months used on it aren't returned.

What's next

• Adding Premium to a circle
• When Premium ends

Need help?

If you get stuck, get in touch and someone on our team will help.