Recurring Billing for Bike and E-Bike Subscriptions: How It Works

Last updated: October 2026

A bike subscription looks simple from the outside: one bike, one monthly fee. Behind that fee sits a lot of billing logic. Minimum terms, early returns, size swaps, buyouts, theft, failed payments and winter discounts all change what a customer owes, and when.

This guide explains how recurring billing works when the product is a bike or e-bike, with examples from Bike Club, Riese & Müller, Decathlon Belgium and Joule.

The short answer: Recurring billing for a bike subscription is more than charging the same amount every month. Your billing has to handle the first payment at checkout, minimum terms and early termination fees, swaps between sizes or models, one-time charges for damage or theft, buyouts that credit past payments, temporary retention discounts and failed payments, all linked to the individual bike the customer has. If your billing system can't see the bike, you end up doing this by hand.

Why billing for bikes is different

Software subscriptions bill for access. A bike subscription bills for a physical asset that is out on the street, wears out, can be stolen and has to come back. That changes three things:

• Every charge is tied to a bike. A swap, a repair or a buyout only makes sense if you know which bike the customer has, its value and its history. That is why asset tracking and billing belong in the same system.
• The contract changes during its life. Customers extend, swap, pause, return early or buy the bike. Each event needs its own billing rule.
• The bike is with the customer when payments fail. You can't simply switch off access. Your dunning process has to work while you still own a bike you don't have.

For the pricing side, how much to charge and when a bike pays for itself, read our guide to bike subscription pricing and unit economics. This article is about how to bill once the price is set.

The billing events in a bike subscription

Map these before you launch. Each one needs a clear rule in your terms and an automated flow in your billing and invoicing.

1. First payment at checkout. Most providers collect the first monthly fee when the customer signs up. Decathlon Belgium asks for nothing else upfront: no deposit, just the first monthly payment (Decathlon Rent).
2. Monthly recurring charge. The core fee, usually including service and maintenance.
3. One-time charges. Delivery, setup, an accessory or a repair outside normal wear. These should be charged as one-time transactions on the same contract, not as a separate order.
4. Swap fees. A fee, or a new price, when a customer changes size or model.
5. Early termination fees. What the customer pays if they return the bike before the minimum term ends.
6. Buyout payment. The final amount if the customer keeps the bike.
7. Extensions and renewals. What happens when the term ends. See how subscription extensions and auto-renewals work.

Minimum terms and early termination fees

A bike that comes back after two months on a 36-month price is a loss. Minimum terms and early termination fees protect you, as long as they are clear before the customer signs.

• Bike Club uses a nine-month minimum term in Germany. After that, subscriptions can be cancelled monthly (Bike Club case study).
• Decathlon Belgium rents e-bikes on a fixed term. If a customer ends early, Decathlon charges one month's fee plus 10% of the remaining payments (Decathlon Rent).
• Riese & Müller lets customers choose a minimum duration at checkout, and longer durations lower the monthly fee (Riese & Müller case study).

Whatever rule you choose, your billing should calculate the fee automatically when a return is booked, using the contract's start date and term. Manual calculations lead to mistakes and disputes. Read more about subscription contract management.

Buyouts with credited payments

Many e-bike subscriptions let customers buy the bike. The billing question is how much of what they already paid counts towards the price.

• Riese & Müller credits 90% of all past subscription fees towards the purchase price of the bike.
• Joule, an e-bike subscription in Oslo, uses a rent-to-own model where every month builds up a buyout discount (Joule case study).
• Decathlon Belgium does the opposite: the bike can't be bought during or after the contract, so Decathlon stays the owner.

In a buyout, your billing has to work out the remaining price from all past payments, charge it to the stored payment method and update the bike's status to sold. Joule runs all three steps automatically. Read more about subscription buyouts and when to let customers buy their products.

One legal point for the EU: from 20 November 2026, rental or leasing agreements with an option to buy can fall under the new Consumer Credit Directive, with credit checks and standard pre-contract information. Pure rental without a purchase option does not. Check your subscribe-to-own offer in our CCD2 guide.

Swaps between sizes and models

For kids' bikes, swaps are the product. Children grow, and the subscription only works if moving to the next size is easy.

Bike Club charges a small fee for early swaps and makes them free after a typical growth cycle. When a family starts a swap in the self-service portal, the system creates the return order, sets up the new subscription and cancels the old one, with all confirmations sent automatically. Billing has to follow that flow exactly: the old fee stops, the new fee starts, and no family pays twice.

Bike Club also blocks a new exchange until the old bike has been received. That one rule prevents customers ending up with two bikes. See how the swap process works in circuly and read our guide to kids' bike subscriptions.

Service, damage and theft

Most bike subscriptions bundle service into the monthly fee, so the billing question is what sits outside it.

• Decathlon Belgium includes repairs and maintenance in the monthly fee. If a bike is stolen, the customer reports it to the police within two working days and files a claim through Decathlon's online claims platform. If all conditions are met, the contract ends and nothing further is owed.
• Riese & Müller bundles insurance, service and maintenance into the Bike Abo.
• Joule includes maintenance, theft insurance, an approved lock and winter tyres when needed in one flat monthly fee.
• Bike Club includes standard wear and tear and offers no extra insurance.

Write down what counts as normal wear and what you charge for. Then make damage and theft charges one-time transactions linked to the bike, so your invoices and the bike's history match. The repair itself stays with you or your service partner. Your billing only needs to know what was done and what it costs.

Deposits or credit checks

Deposits protect you but put customers off. Most e-bike subscriptions use a credit check instead.

• Riese & Müller approves every subscription only after a successful credit check.
• Decathlon Belgium takes no deposit, only the first monthly payment.
• Bike Club combines credit checks with basket logic that flags unusually large or suspicious orders.

Run the check at checkout, before the first payment and before a bike leaves the warehouse. Read more about credit checks and fraud prevention.

Seasonal retention pricing

Bike demand drops in winter, and so do subscriptions. Instead of losing those customers, Bike Club runs targeted retention offers, such as keeping the current bike at a discount. The reduced price is applied automatically and switches back to the standard price afterwards.

This only works if your billing can apply temporary prices to a single contract without a new subscription. A pause option is another way to keep customers over the winter. See how skip, pause and cancel options affect retention.

Failed payments and dunning

A failed payment on a bike subscription is different from one on a streaming service. The customer still has a bike worth hundreds or thousands of euros. Your process needs steps:

1. Automatic retries. Bike Club recovers most failed payments through automatic retries, and the system shows the reason for each failure.
2. Dunning. Reminders that escalate over time. See automated dunning.
3. Debt collection. For cases that don't resolve, with a clear point where you ask for the bike back.

Read our guides to failed payment recovery and payment retrial vs. dunning and debt collection.

Payment methods

Your subscription system and your payment provider do different jobs. The payment service provider (PSP) moves the money. The subscription system decides what to charge, when and why. Bike Club, for example, uses Mollie for recurring payments, cards and local payment methods, with circuly running the subscription logic on top.

Choose payment methods that support recurring charges in your markets, such as SEPA Direct Debit and cards. Decathlon Belgium, for example, accepts Mastercard or Visa debit and credit cards issued in Belgium. See our list of payment methods that support recurring payments.

Billing through dealers and stores

Many bike subscriptions are sold through physical stores, which adds a billing question: who owns the customer contract?

• Riese & Müller has the customer choose a local dealer at checkout. The dealer handles pickup, adjustments, maintenance and the return, while circuly keeps each customer contract linked to the dealer network.
• Decathlon Belgium lets customers subscribe online or in store. Store teams create subscriptions in a few steps, and all subscriptions are billed and managed centrally (Decathlon case study).

Either way, billing should be the same no matter where the customer signed. One contract, one billing logic, one place to see it.

Why this matters more as fleets grow

The bike subscription market is consolidating. In May 2026, Swapfiets acquired Dance, bringing the combined company to more than 75,000 subscription e-bikes in 45 cities (Swapfiets). At that scale, every manual step in billing multiplies. Smaller providers, manufacturers and retailers need the same automation to compete. See who else is active in our overview of the leading bike subscription companies.

Checklist: recurring billing for your bike subscription

• Collect the first payment and run the credit check at checkout.
• Set a minimum term and an early termination rule, and calculate the fee automatically.
• Decide whether customers can buy the bike, and how much of their past payments you credit.
• Check whether a purchase option brings your offer under CCD2 in the EU.
• Define swap rules and fees, and block new swaps until the old bike is back.
• List what service covers and what you charge as damage or theft.
• Plan temporary retention prices and pause options for winter.
• Set up retries, dunning and a debt collection step.
• Pick payment methods that support recurring charges in each market.
• Link every charge to the individual bike.

How circuly handles billing for bike subscriptions

circuly is the subscription management software behind Bike Club, Riese & Müller, Decathlon Belgium and Joule. It connects to your existing shop and to your payment provider, and handles the billing logic bike businesses need: term-based plans, minimum terms, early termination fees, one-time charges, swaps, automatic buyout calculation with credited payments, temporary retention discounts, retries and dunning, and invoices, all linked to the individual bike. Customers manage their own subscriptions in the self-service portal, and you track every bike with reporting and analytics.

Explore our micromobility solution or book a demo.

FAQs

What is recurring billing for a bike subscription?

It is the system that charges subscribers on a schedule for the use of a bike, usually monthly, and handles every change to the contract: first payment, swaps, early returns, damage charges, buyouts and failed payments.

Should I take a deposit for an e-bike subscription?

Most providers don't. A credit check at checkout, as Riese & Müller uses, protects you without putting customers off. Decathlon Belgium takes only the first monthly payment.

How do early termination fees work for bike subscriptions?

The customer pays a fee if they return the bike before the minimum term ends. Decathlon Belgium charges one month's fee plus 10% of the remaining payments. Bike Club uses a nine-month minimum, then monthly cancellation.

How is a buyout price calculated?

It depends on your rules. Riese & Müller credits 90% of past fees towards the purchase price. Joule builds up a buyout discount every month. Your billing should calculate the remaining amount automatically from the payments already made.

Does a bike subscription with a buyout option fall under consumer credit rules?

In the EU, it can. From 20 November 2026, rental and leasing agreements with an option to buy can fall under CCD2. Pure rental without any purchase option does not. Read our CCD2 guide and check with local counsel.

Related reading:

• Bike Subscription Pricing: Unit Economics, Payback and the Levers That Matter
• Bike Subscription vs. Leasing vs. Selling: Which Model Should Your Bike Business Offer?
• How to Start a Bike Rental or Subscription Business: A 2026 Guide
• Kids' Bike Subscriptions: How They Work and How to Launch One
• How Invoicing Works in circuly

Sources

• Decathlon Rent Belgium: long-term e-bike rental terms
• Swapfiets: Swapfiets acquires Dance (May 2026)
• circuly: Bike Club case study
• circuly: Riese & Müller case study
• circuly: Decathlon case study
• circuly: Joule case study