What changed: your country and your prices

Your country is what decides the prices you see and the currency you pay in. Three things about it changed at once: it is now asked for before you start using your account, it is used consistently everywhere a price appears, and it can no longer cost you the plan you are paying for. This guide explains what each of them did before and what they do now.

How it worked before

Your country was something the system guessed, and it was easy to end up with no country at all or with one that no longer matched anything on sale.

• Nobody asked you for it up front. You could use the account for a long time without it ever being set, and saving it from your profile did not always work.
• Where a price for your country was missing, you could still be shown, or charged, an amount written for somewhere else, in a currency that was not yours.
• Worst of all: if your saved country stopped matching the one your plan was priced in, simply opening the plans screen cancelled your subscription and put you on a new free one. You lost everything the plan included without asking for anything, without paying for anything, and without any warning — just by looking at the page.
• When nothing was on sale for your country, the plans page and the public prices showed an empty space, with no explanation of why there was nothing there.

How it works now

Your country is part of your profile, and it is asked for first. If your account does not have one yet, it is worked out from where you are connecting and saved for you, and you carry on without being interrupted. Only when it cannot be worked out are you taken to your profile, told why your country is needed, and kept there until you choose it. Saving it works. If you change it later, your state and your city are cleared so you pick the ones that belong to the new country instead of keeping the old ones.

You are only ever offered a price meant for you. Plans, add-ons, tiered prices, purchases for life and packages of units all show the price written for your country, or the one written for everyone when there is no specific one, and nothing at all when neither exists. Usage that is measured while there is no price for your country is still recorded in your history, but it is not billed, instead of being charged at another country's rate.

Opening the plans screen never changes your subscription. Looking at what is on sale is now only looking. Your country still decides which prices you are shown, and an account that has no subscription at all is still given the free plan, but nothing you already have is cancelled or replaced along the way.

When there is nothing for your country, it says so. The plans page and the public prices tell you there are no plans for your country yet, and an add-on that is not sold where you are says so on its card, instead of leaving a blank space.

A new account starts on the free plan of its own country. When more than one free plan applies, it is put on the oldest of them. An account whose subscription ends goes back to the free plan of the country saved on it, on its own.

Why it changed

Your country is not a detail: it is what a price is written against. Guessing it, or working without it, meant the same screen could show one person an amount in a currency they cannot pay in, and quietly take another person's plan away. Asking for it once, at the beginning, and then treating a missing price as "nothing to offer here" rather than "use whatever is closest" removes both, and makes looking at the catalogue safe again. How your country is worked out when you have not saved one is described in Detect the visitor's country, and how prices are written per country in Create and price a plan.

What you may need to do

If your account has no country saved, it is normally filled in for you the next time you open a page, and you will not notice. If it cannot be worked out, you are taken to your profile instead. Choose your country, then your state and your city, and save. That is the whole of it: from that point the prices you are shown, the currency you are charged in and the plans offered to you are the ones written for where you are.

If you were moved onto a free plan by the old behaviour and believe you should still be on the plan you were paying for, get in touch — that change is visible in your billing history and can be looked at.