Paying your studio automatically

Many studios let you pay your monthly tuition automatically, so you never have to remember an invoice. If yours does, you will see it on the payment page of an invoice they send you.

Setting it up

Open the payment link in your studio's email. If automatic payments are available to you, the button reads Pay [amount] and set up autopay. Pressing it pays the invoice in front of you and saves your card or bank account for your monthly tuition.

The terms are printed right above the button — read them before you press it. They say:

• the exact amount your studio will charge each month, and the date of the first charge;

• that you get a receipt every time;

• that before any payment for a different amount, your studio will email you at least 10 days ahead and you can say no;

• that you can ask your studio to stop automatic payments at any time.

If the invoice you are paying is not your usual monthly figure — a first month, or a discount that applies only once — the page tells you what your monthly tuition will be from which month.

What gets charged

Only the amount you agreed to. If your tuition changes, you are either emailed about it in advance, as the terms promise, or sent an invoice to pay yourself instead — you are never charged a figure you did not agree to.

Your studio may add a processing fee to automatic payments made with a credit card; the payment page says so beside the button. Debit cards, prepaid cards and bank accounts never carry it.

Paying by bank account

Where your studio offers it, you can pay from a US bank account instead of a card. A bank payment takes a few business days to clear. Until it does, the payment page says your payment is on its way — you do not need to pay again.

Receipts

You are emailed a receipt after every automatic payment. Payments go directly to your studio through their own Stripe account — Encore never sees your card or bank details.

Stopping automatic payments

Ask your studio — message them from the family portal, or reply to one of their emails. Once they stop it, you get an invoice by email each month to pay yourself. If your studio emails you about a change to your tuition, that email also has a button to stop automatic payments.

Saving a card in the portal is different

When you pay from inside the family portal, there is a box to save your card with your studio for later. Ticking it saves the card only — it does not sign you up for automatic payments.