Variable Pricing (NCS Circ)
This feature enables NCS Circ clients to apply a surcharge (processing fee) for credit card payments without explicitly itemizing it. When a credit card is selected as the payment method, the surcharge is automatically added to the term amount and displayed as part of the total amount payable, without showing the surcharge as a separate line item. Conversely, if the payment method is a bank account (ACH) or bank draft, no surcharge is applied. As a result, for the same subscription or offer, users will see a difference in pricing depending on whether they choose a credit card or a bank account/draft as their payment method.
Subscribe does not calculate the credit card surcharge amount. The surcharge amount is received from the NCS Circ for each transaction.
Before you Start
Make sure you meet the following pre-requisites:
NCS Circ version: 2025-0.0
Subscribe version: 3.17.2
To enable the Variable Pricing functionality, set the MG2 control API Setting Keys
DTI.CashDiscounting to 1
Billing.CreditCard.ProcessingFee.Enable to 0 (this disables Processing Fee flow)
For an end-to-end flow of Variable Pricing, respective Business Rules must be set up in NCS Circ.
Variable Pricing in Subscription Panel for New Starts
With the Variable Pricing feature, a surcharge will be applied if the payment method involves a credit card—including but not limited to options such as Google Pay or Apple Pay (non-ACH). Conversely, no surcharge will be applied if the payment method is a bank account (ACH) or PayPal.
When Variable Pricing is enabled through the CMS component and the MG2 control key, the subscription cost displayed to users selecting a credit card payment option includes the surcharge amount. However, this surcharge will not be itemized in the payment details (such as processing fees, activation fees, etc.) and will instead be integrated into the total amount shown.
Below is an illustrative new start flow set up in a 'Simple' CMS theme:
Landing page where the users get to see different offers.
Offer details are displayed followed by the display of the components such as User Information, Address Information, Payment Information, and Order summary.
User Information - In this tab, the user enters the email. If the user is new, the user will be prompted to enter a password and confirm the entered password. If the user is already known, an info message such as "This email is already used" will be displayed. (is the email ID already available in the Subscribe database or Auth0?). The user clicks Continue button.
Address Information - The user enters address details.
Payment Information - In this tab, the subscription payment is displayed and the price changes based on the selected Payment Method.
Order Summary
The final Congratulatory page
Variable Pricing in Self-Service
If the Variable Pricing feature is enabled in the Self-Service, the credit card surcharge is applied only to the base amount of the offer and any outstanding dues. Elements such as donations, tips, taxes, etc., are excluded from the surcharge calculation. The surcharge amount and the base amount of the offer are sent to NCS. However, these amounts are combined and presented as a single rate term to the end-user on the Self-Service page. As a result, the surcharge is not displayed as a separate line item and remains invisible to the end-user.
Variable pricing can be applied to the following payment flows:
One-time payment
Autopay (EZPay signup)
Restarts
When the Variable Pricing feature is enabled, on the Payment page, there will be two Rate columns in the Rate grid, (one for Credit Card and the other for Bank account) clearly highlighting the rate difference for the same offer with respect to the payment method.
Below is an example list of CMS Contents on each page that can be customized as per your requirement:
(CMS > Content > Select the Page (Payment/SubscriptionRestart/AutoPaySignUp) > Select the appropriate property and edit the label text as per your requirement)
Payment Page -> PaymentOptionsHeader.ACHAmount
Payment -> AutoPaySignUpHeader.ACHAmount
SubscriptionRestart -> PaymentOptionsHeader.ACHAmount
AutoPaySignUp -> AutoPaySignUpHeader.ACHAmount
One-time payments include making a one-time payment for an active subscription that is not on autopay, paying a Tip, or a donation.
The credit card surcharge is not applicable for Tip and Donation amounts even when the payment is done using credit cards.
Hence for one-time Tip and donation payments, the variable pricing will not be in effect since the credit card surcharge is not calculated in these payments. Tip Payment
Adding a Tip feature is ideally not applied to Digital subscriptions.
For a non-digital subscriber, the 'Add Tip' hyperlink will be available on the Dashboard page. Clicking on it opens up the Add a Tip page where the user can enter the Tip amount.
Given below is an example of a one-time Tip payment for an active user who is not on Autopay. The user needs to pay only the Tip amount even when the payment method is a Credit card.
Donation Payment
Both digital and non-digital subscribers can pay for donations. Just like Tip payments, donations are free of surcharges, and hence, variable pricing does not affect donation payment.
Subscription Payment
However, for subscription cost payment, the credit card surcharge will be added to the rate amount, and it will be displayed as a single rate term if the payment method is a credit card.
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