Update4: I just sent this email to FM support. I am waiting for a reply:
On more than one occasion I had autorenew set up for an account and was charged not just once but twice and three times the same day by mistake. This caused a number of checks to bounce and then I owed bounced check fees to the bank plus other fees. It was a nightmare. I have complete control of when and how much I pay when I make a lump sum prepayment. With autorenew I lose that control. Is FM going to pay bounced check fees, late payment fees and charges, etc if you overcharge me on an autorenew payment?
Update3: FM support latest explanation to me:
Thank you for the reply. I am happy to go into more details about our decision to remove lump sum.
> WHY did you remove lump sum prepayment forcing everyone to use auto-renew?
>
It is to better align the payment methods we offer and to streamline the payments. We often see people adding money to lump sum to mitigate renewals but that method is the same concept as auto-renew.
Some feedback we've received involves auto-renew does not provide a way you could pay for more years than auto-renew offers (1-3 years) but this often causes more issues since currency rates, taxes and price other factors can influence the price that some customers pay. Imagine adding $50 to cover the next year of your bill, only to have your subscription lapse because there was a change in price, and now you owe $50.01. We've had customers experience this and feel that auto-renewal is a better payment method and provides a more solid experience to our customers.
Additionally and just as important, we are currently utilizing PIN, Strip and PayPal as our payment processors. In the near future, we plan to start utilizing a different payment processor, Paddle. This will take some of the focus that our team has on payments away and let us focus more on developing Fastmail, rather than the work we've spent on payments and Paddle does not support lump sum payments.
> Another question: if I cancel auto-renew can I at that point make a lump sum prepayment?
>
We no longer support lump sum payments at all. You can cancel the auto-renewal, and we'll notify you when your payment is coming up so you can choose if you'd like to pay for the service.
I'd still love to hear why you prefer lump sum to auto-renewal so that I could pass that along to our team. You mention that you detest auto-renewals, and I can understand feeling that way, but it would be helpful to understand why that is the case in more detail.
Update2: What follows is the reply from FM support to my second email to them:
Thank you for reaching out to Fastmail support. I am Tyler; I lead the support team.
I would also feel frustrated if the payment system that I relied for several years was removed. We did request feedback for a select group of people that utilized Lump sum but we did not request it for all users. I am sorry that you were not included in that list.
We removed lump sum in order to better align our payment methods towards auto-renew and auto-renew can still by canceled by going to Learn more and cancel this account, and selecting Confirm Cancellation.
With that said, I am happy to provide your feedback to our team on this, however I'd like to get a better understanding of your use case. Do you mind detailing what makes lump sum more useful than auto-renew for you?
Please get back to me at your convenience.
Update: When I asked FM support the reason why they eliminated lump sum prepayments as an option they did not answer my question other than they wanted to move everyone to autorenew. I ALREADY KNEW THAT. I asked a second time what is the reason they eliminated it. It should not make any difference to them why I prefer lump sum prepayments.
I am tired of this horse **** from FM. I have always made lump sum prepayments including when I first set up the account. WTF is the reason for this decision? Did FM ever poll their customers to see what they wanted?
I have the funds now so I want to prepay now instead of waiting until the renewal date when I may not have the funds in my account when they try to automatically deduct it. Complete bull ****.