📖 What This Article Covers
If you recently upgraded to the Golden Loop plan and noticed that you were charged the full plan price instead of a small prorated amount, or that your refund did not reflect a prepaid credit already applied to your account, this article explains what happened, how the correct amounts are calculated, and exactly what to do next.
💳 How a Golden Loop Upgrade Should Be Billed
When you accept a Golden Loop offer partway through a billing cycle, you should not pay the full plan price upfront. Instead, the system calculates a prorated charge, which means you only pay for the time you actually use. Here is how it should work:
- Time remaining: you are billed only for the days left in your current cycle, which is roughly one month for most upgrades.
- Credits applied: any prepaid credit already on your account, such as a Growth plan credit, is deducted before your card is charged.
- Future billing: the full plan price starts on your next normal billing date, not at signup.
For example, instead of a full charge of $3,351.60, a typical mid-cycle upgrade should produce a much smaller prorated charge of roughly one month of the plan.
⚠️ The Known Billing Issue
Some customers who accepted the Golden Loop offer ran into two related problems:
- Full charge instead of a prorated charge: the system charged the entire plan price at signup (for example, $3,351.60) rather than a small prorated amount of about one month.
- Refund that ignored prepaid credits: the automatic refund issued afterward (for example, $2,005.24) was calculated without including a prepaid credit — such as a $1,179.75 Growth credit — that had already been applied to an earlier purchase, like a June PRO plan payment.
Both problems are billing calculation errors on our side. They do not affect your access to Golden Loop features, and they can be corrected once our team reviews your account.
🔍 How to Check Your Charge and Refund
Before reaching out, gather these details from your billing history and invoice emails so our team can resolve your case quickly:
- The date and amount of the Golden Loop charge (for example, $3,351.60).
- The date and amount of any refund you received (for example, $2,005.24).
- Any prepaid credit applied to earlier purchases, including the credit amount (for example, $1,179.75) and the month it was used.
- The invoice numbers or payment references for each transaction.
Then compare the numbers. If your upgrade charge equals the full plan price, or if your refund plus the credit already applied does not add up to the amount you overpaid, your account likely needs a manual correction.
🧮 How the Correct Refund Is Calculated
A correct adjustment accounts for every dollar already on your account. In simple terms:
- Start with the full amount you were charged.
- Subtract the correct prorated price you should have paid.
- Include any prepaid credit that was applied to earlier purchases, because that credit was your money and must not be lost or double-counted.
- The result is the total that should be returned to you as a refund or account credit.
If the refund you received is smaller than this total, the difference is still owed to you, and our team will make it right.
✅ What to Do Next
If your charge or refund does not match the amounts described above, follow these steps:
- Collect the billing details listed in the section above.
- Send them to our team through the in-platform chat so a billing specialist can recalculate your charge and refund.
- Our team will confirm the correct prorated amount, verify any prepaid credits, and issue any additional refund or account credit owed to you.
- Screenshot or save your invoice emails when you make a purchase, especially when a credit is applied.
- Check the amount charged on your card right after any upgrade and compare it to the prorated price you expected.
- Keep a record of prepaid credits, including the amount and the month they were used, so they are easy to reference if a refund is ever needed.
Refunds typically appear on your bank statement within 5 to 10 business days after they are processed, depending on your bank. If a credit is applied to your Search Atlas account instead, it will be visible immediately in your billing summary.
💡 Tips to Avoid Confusion on Future Upgrades
🙋 Still Need Help?
Our billing team can review your transactions, verify every credit, and correct any overcharge or under-refunded amount. 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.