Service suspension protection for overdue payments

What is service suspension protection?

If your pay-as-you-go products have an overdue payment, Alibaba Cloud provides service suspension protection. This protection lets you continue using Alibaba Cloud services within a specific credit limit or for a certain period. Services are billed as usual during the protection period. The protection credit limit is not the upper limit for overdue payments. The protection credit limit or duration is automatically calculated and updated each month based on factors such as your historical spending on Alibaba Cloud.

Service suspension protection for pay-as-you-go customers

• For new users, service suspension protection is disabled by default. You must enable it manually to take effect. If protection is not enabled, your pay-as-you-go products will immediately enter the service suspension process if your account has an overdue payment (available credit < 0).

• For new users who enable credit control for the first time, service suspension protection is enabled by default after credit control takes effect. To configure service suspension protection, go to Expenses and Costs > Billing Account to enable or disable the service.

• If your spending is mainly on cloud products that are vulnerable to fraud attacks, such as Voice Service, the system provides only credit-based protection. This helps prevent large bills that result from fraudulent usage.

• Your service manager can cancel the protection for a specific overdue payment. If you have special issues, contact your service manager.

Alibaba Cloud offers two types of service suspension protection: credit-based protection and day-based protection. The type of protection available depends on the customer type, as described below:

• Example 1: Customer A is a credit control customer and has service suspension protection enabled. On January 1, 2025, the account enters the service suspension protection state because the available credit is insufficient (available credit < 0). The protection period is 10 days.

  • If Customer A uses cloud communication products during the protection period, and the overdue amount (for example, CNY 101, which means the available credit is -101) is greater than or equal to the protection credit limit (CNY 100), the cloud communication products are immediately suspended. The 10-day protection still applies to other cloud products that the customer uses. This means these services can be used until January 10, 2025, even if the overdue payment is not cleared. If the customer tops up the account and clears the overdue payment during the protection period, the cloud communication services resume normal operation.

  • If Customer A uses cloud communication products during the protection period, and the overdue amount (for example, CNY 90, which means the available credit is -90) is less than the protection credit limit (CNY 100), the 10-day protection applies to both the cloud communication products and other cloud products. This means these services can be used until January 10, 2025, even if the overdue payment is not cleared.

  • If Customer A does not use any cloud communication products during the protection period, the 10-day protection applies to all products that the customer uses.

• Example 2: Customer B has an average monthly spending of less than CNY 52,888 and has service suspension protection enabled. On January 1, 2025, the account enters the service suspension protection state because the available credit is insufficient (available credit < 0). Based on factors such as historical spending, the customer's protection credit limit is CNY 1,000.

  If Customer B's overdue amount (for example, CNY 1,001) during the protection period is greater than or equal to the protection credit limit (CNY 1,000), all of the customer's services are immediately suspended.

Risk notice: The protection credit limit is not an upper limit for overdue payments

The bill amount for pay-as-you-go products is affected by factors such as the billing cycle (for example, hourly or daily) and product specifications. A single bill may result in an overdue payment that exceeds your protection credit limit.

• Case 1: Customer A uses a daily-billed CDN product. The protection credit limit is CNY 100, and the account balance is CNY 1,000. On February 1, the customer experiences a traffic spike. The bill generated on February 2 is for CNY 5,000. After the bill is settled, the account has an overdue payment of CNY 4,000. Because the overdue amount is greater than the CNY 100 protection credit limit, the CDN service enters the suspension process.

  Important

  • Bills generated during the protection period are standard service fee bills, and you are responsible for paying these charges.

  • For Alibaba Cloud pay-as-you-go products, there is a delay of about 3 hours between resource usage and bill generation. In some cases, bill generation may be further delayed. Therefore, you may still receive bills after a resource is suspended.

  • Pay-as-you-go products have billing cycles. If there is a sudden spike in your business usage, the fees for a single billing cycle may exceed the protection credit limit.

• Case 2: Customer B uses an hourly-billed ECS product. After using it from 00:00 to 01:00 on March 1, a bill for CNY 1,000 is generated at 04:00. The protection credit limit is CNY 100. This results in an overdue payment, and the ECS instance is suspended at 04:00. However, the customer will still receive bills at 05:00 and 06:00 for the usage from 01:00 to 02:00 and 02:00 to 03:00 on March 1. These are standard service fee bills.