Paid Groups Policy

1. What Paid Groups are

Paid Groups are an optional feature that lets a group owner create a paid-membership group or convert an existing free group into one. Owners choose how many membership tiers to offer, what each tier is called, what it includes, and how much it costs each month. Core browsing of Paranormal Country remains free. Paying is never required to use the Platform as a whole — only to join or stay in a group that the owner has made paid-only.

Payments are processed by Stripe (including Stripe Connect for creator payouts). Paranormal Country is a payment facilitator for this feature, not a bank, and does not hold member funds as a wallet balance.

2. Free groups and converting to paid

Groups may be created as free membership or paid membership. Converting a free group to a paid-membership group is a one-off change made by the group owner or an admin.

After convert, the owner typically:

• connects Stripe for payouts;
• creates one or more paid tiers (name, description, and monthly price of their choice);
• may share a subscribe link and/or post a notice in the group so existing members can subscribe before paid-only access is turned on; then
• enables paid-only access.

Until paid-only access is enabled, existing free members generally keep group access and can subscribe if a tier is available. The Platform does not promise a fixed automatic grace period after paid-only access is enabled. When the owner enables paid-only access, members without an active paid subscription are removed from the group. The group owner and group admins remain so the group can still be managed.

After paid-only access is live, free join is closed. People who want to join must subscribe. Owners and admins may still access the group without paying.

3. Membership tiers and pricing

Group owners decide which paid tiers to offer, including the number of tiers, names, descriptions, and monthly prices. Paranormal Country does not set a minimum or maximum price for creator tiers beyond what Stripe requires to process a charge (for example, Stripe's minimum charge amount for the billing currency).

Members choose a tier at checkout. Different tiers may unlock different perks as described by the group owner. Within a paid-only group, only paying members (plus owner/admins) can access the group. Individual posts may also be marked for paid members only where that option is available.

4. Platform fee

Paranormal Country charges a platform fee on paid membership charges (default 7%, shown at checkout and in group settings). Stripe also charges its own payment processing fees. Creators receive the remainder via Stripe payouts on Stripe's schedule.

5. Creator responsibilities

Group owners who offer paid tiers are responsible for describing perks accurately, delivering any promised paid-member content or access, communicating conversion to paid-only access to their members, and handling supporter questions about those perks. Do not claim that tier proceeds or platform fees are donated to charity unless an approved disclosure flow says otherwise.

6. Cancellations and refunds

Members can cancel through the Stripe Customer Portal. Access to paid membership continues until the end of the current billing period unless Stripe or the Platform must revoke access for fraud, abuse, or legal reasons. If a payment fails, Stripe may retry; limited access may continue briefly during that retry window. Refund requests are handled case-by-case via Stripe and creator policy; contact [email protected] if you need help locating the right Stripe or creator channel.

7. Disputes, chargebacks, and credits

The group owner (or their designated payout account) is responsible for perk delivery and for resolving complaints from members about paid memberships. Paranormal Country provides the Platform and payment facilitation only. We do not guarantee paid content quality, issue store credits, process returns of membership fees as a retailer, or act as an arbitrator between members and creators.

Card disputes and chargebacks are handled under Stripe's and the card networks' rules. Creators may be required to respond through Stripe. We may share limited membership and entitlement records with Stripe when needed to investigate fraud or a dispute. A successful dispute or unpaid invoice may result in loss of paid access.

8. What this is not

Paid Groups do not change Marketplace, ScareBnB, or Events ticketing. Those surfaces remain listing/hosting features where payment is arranged off-platform unless we clearly announce otherwise. See our Marketplace Safety Policy and Terms.