🔍 Overview
If you purchased an annual Pro plan but your account was downgraded to Growth before your renewal date, or if you noticed unexpected charges after a plan change, this article explains what may have happened and how to get it resolved quickly.
⚠️ Common Billing Issues on Annual Plans
Several known billing scenarios can affect annual Pro plan subscribers. Understanding which situation applies to your account helps our team resolve it faster.
- Premature downgrade: Your account was moved to a lower-tier plan (such as Growth) before your annual subscription period ended, causing a loss of Pro features and credits.
- Duplicate charges: A plan upgrade created a second billing profile, resulting in two charges appearing on your payment method.
- Lingering monthly charge: After switching to an annual plan, a previous monthly charge was not fully cancelled and continued to bill.
- Credit errors from proration: Upgrading mid-cycle caused an incorrect proration calculation, leading to unexpected credit adjustments — sometimes as high as several hundred dollars in either direction.
- Double annual charge: A plan change triggered a full annual re-bill on top of an existing payment, resulting in being charged twice for the same period.
✅ What to Check Before Contacting Support
Before reaching out, gather the following information so our team can resolve your case as quickly as possible:
- Log in to your Search Atlas account and go to your billing or subscription settings.
- Note the current plan shown on your account (e.g. Growth, Pro, Starter).
- Check your email for your original annual purchase confirmation. Note the purchase date and the plan end date stated in that email.
- Review your payment history or bank/card statement for any duplicate or unexpected charges, and note the exact amounts and dates.
- If you were charged extra credits or incurred additional costs due to the downgrade, note the approximate credit amount lost or charged.
Having this information ready significantly speeds up the investigation and resolution of your case.
🛠️ How to Get Your Plan and Credits Restored
Our billing team can manually restore your annual Pro plan to its correct end date, reverse erroneous charges, and refund any extra credits you were billed for as a result of a premature downgrade or billing error.
These corrections cannot be made directly by customers inside the platform — they require a billing team action on the backend. Please follow the steps below to get this resolved:
- Open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the Search Atlas platform.
- Type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.
- Share the details you gathered in the previous section: your original plan purchase date, the expected end date of your annual plan, your current plan, and any charge amounts in dispute.
- Our team will investigate your account, confirm the billing error, and apply the appropriate corrections — including plan restoration and credit or charge adjustments.
📋 What Happens After You Contact Support
Once our team reviews your account, they will:
- Restore your account to the correct plan tier (e.g. Pro annual) with the accurate renewal date.
- Reverse any duplicate or erroneous charges where applicable.
- Adjust your credit balance to reflect what you were originally entitled to under your purchased plan.
- Confirm all changes with you before closing the case.
Resolution times vary depending on the complexity of the billing correction, but our team prioritises plan and charge disputes and aims to resolve them promptly.
🚫 What Not to Do
To avoid complicating your billing situation further, please do not:
- Manually upgrade or downgrade your plan again before speaking to support — this can overwrite existing corrections and make the investigation harder.
- Initiate a chargeback with your bank or card provider without first contacting us. Chargebacks can cause your account to be suspended and delay resolution.
- Purchase a new annual plan to replace a wrongly downgraded one — this may result in double billing.
💡 Preventing This Issue in the Future
After your plan is restored, keep these tips in mind to monitor your subscription:
- Save your annual plan confirmation email and note your renewal date in a calendar or reminder app.
- Periodically check your plan status inside your account settings, especially around known billing dates.
- If you notice your plan tier has changed unexpectedly, contact support immediately rather than waiting — the sooner we investigate, the easier it is to reverse any associated charges.
🆘 Still Need Help?
If you need further assistance, open the chat widget in the bottom-right corner of the platform and type human teammate to be connected with a member of our team.