A £150 ticket is a lot of money to find in one go, and a fair number of the people who want it will not buy it that way. Split it into a deposit and three payments and the same ticket sells to people who were never going to pay in one piece. This guide explains how instalment plans work on tickts, what to set, what the buyer sees, what happens when a payment fails, and where plans do not belong.
How a plan works
The buyer pays a deposit at checkout and Stripe collects the rest automatically in equal instalments spread up to the event date. You set two numbers per event: the deposit as a percentage, anywhere from 1% to 99%, and the number of instalments, from 2 to 12. Plans are available on Growth and above, on card payments through Stripe, and only for events at least 30 days away, so there is time to collect before the night.
A £150 ticket, worked through
| Setting | Deposit 25%, 3 instalments | Deposit 50%, 2 instalments |
|---|---|---|
| Paid at checkout | £37.50 | £75.00 |
| Then | 3 payments of £37.50 | 2 payments of £37.50 |
| Total | £150.00 | £150.00 |
Instalments fall at equal intervals between the purchase and the event, so an April sale for a July festival on the first shape collects in May, June and early July. The buyer sees the schedule on the confirmation email before they commit to it.
What the buyer sees
- At checkout, "Pay in instalments" sits beside paying in full. They choose it, pay the deposit, and get an email showing every date and amount.
- Their order shows as pending payment until the last instalment clears, then flips to completed and the PDF tickets are emailed.
- Until then they can see their tickets in their tickts account but cannot print or share them, which is what stops a ticket being passed on before it is paid for.
When a payment fails
There is nothing for you to do. tickts retries the card on a schedule and emails the buyer each time. After the third consecutive failure the plan cancels itself: the deposit is kept, any instalments collected beyond it are refunded to the buyer from your Stripe balance, the tickets are voided and the seats go back on sale. You keep the deposit and the seat to resell, never both the full price and the ticket.
Put the deposit rule in the ticket description: "25% deposit, balance in three payments; the deposit is non-refundable if the plan is cancelled." Buyers who read it in advance do not argue about it afterwards.
Where plans earn their keep
- Festival weekends, courses and residentials, hospitality packages, anything over about £80 a head.
- Events on sale months ahead, where the gap between the sale and the night gives the instalments room.
- Audiences who budget by the month. A plan does not make a ticket cheaper; it makes it buyable on a Tuesday.
Where they do not
- Under 30 days out. tickts will not offer a plan there, and neither should you; there is no time to collect.
- Cheap tickets. Three payments of £5 is more admin than money.
- Pay by Bank buyers. A bank payment cannot be saved for later instalments, so it is not offered on deposit bookings; card plans only.
- PayPal-only accounts. Plans run on Stripe.
Plans versus buy now, pay later
These are different products and worth keeping apart. A payment plan is yours: the money arrives in instalments and the risk of a missed payment sits with the plan, which handles it as above. Buy now, pay later through Klarna or Clearpay pays you in full up front and the provider collects from the buyer; it carries a higher processing fee than a card, taken from your Stripe balance, and needs Klarna or Clearpay activated on your Stripe account. If you want the cash now and will wear the fee, use that. If you want to keep the fee and can wait for the money, use a plan.
Switching a plan on
- On the Growth plan or above, open the event and turn on Enable Payment Plan.
- Set the number of instalments and the deposit percentage.
- Save. The option appears at checkout on that event only; plans can be enabled on some events and not others.
If you later want a particular event to sell in full only, turn the plan off on that event; orders already on a plan continue to collect as scheduled.
