Sometimes a creator's bank account balance is lower than the full balance owed to the agency at the time Melon attempts to charge them, aka they have insufficient funds.
We encourage creators and their agency teams to proactively communicate about the timing of charges and payouts so everyone is on the same page. This is also a great strategy to help creators alleviate persistent insufficient funds issues 🙂
How Melon handles insufficient funds
Let's say a creator, Harley, cashes out $1,000 from her social media account and owes BDE Agency $250 for their 25% split.
Melon attempts to charge Harley $250, but she only has $200 in her bank account.
By default, Melon will charge 80% of the amount currently available in Harley's bank account. In this example, this would be $160.
Now Harley owes BDE Agency $90 (the original $250 - the successful $160 charge).
Melon will not attempt any further charges on this split until there is another platform cashout.
After a new platform cashout occurs, Melon will attempt to charge the $90 balance as well as any additional money owed from the new cashout.
If Melon is unable to charge Harley the full balance amount, we will again charge 80% of her bank account balance.
This process will repeat until the creator carries a balance owed to the agency of $0.