Temporary Credit Limits

Temporary credit limits increase or decrease the credit limit for a group or subscriber on postpaid periodic balances and meters for the periodic cycle, and postpaid main balances for the current billing cycle. Temporary credit limits are reset to the prior permanent value at the end of the period.

Use the AddThreshold and RemoveThreshold SubMan APIs to add and remove temporary credit limits for a group or subscriber on postpaid periodic balances and meters, and postpaid main balances that are simple balances.

For example, if the actual credit limit for a postpaid periodic balance is 500 Euros with a temporary credit limit set to 600 Euros, the subscriber data, voice, and messaging is authorized until the postpaid balance hits the 600 Euro temporary credit limit in the periodic cycle. When a change causes the balance to exceed the temporary credit limit, the request fails, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Temporary Credit Limit
Temporary Credit Limit Diagram

A temporary credit limit can be higher or lower than the permanent credit limit and is an absolute value.

If late usage was authorized in the current period, the current acting credit limit is used for rating the usage. If late usage was authorized in the previous period, the previous acting credit limit is used for rating. For example, for a monthly cycle:
  • September 1 — Normal credit limit = 500.
  • September 15 — Temporary credit limit changes to unlimited (mid-cycle).
  • September 25 — Temporary credit limit changes to 600 (this new temporary credit limit replaces the old credit limit).
  • September 26 — Late usage received (which was authorized on September 24) so credit limit of 600 is used.
  • October 1 — Normal credit limit = 500.
  • October 2 — Late usage received (authorized on September 30), so credit limit 600 is used.

A temporary credit limit is tied to each period and remains as long as the period is present. For postpaid main balances there is a temporary credit limit for the previous period, and a temporary credit limit for the current period.

For postpaid periodic balances and meters, when a temporary credit limit is added, the temporary credit limit is saved for that period for the periodic balance instance in the wallet. If there is an existing temporary credit limit for the period and a new temporary credit limit is added, the new temporary credit limit replaces the existing one. A temporary credit limit set for a periodic cycle is considered the acting credit limit for that period. If a credit limit is removed, the permanent credit limit of the balance instance becomes the acting credit limit for rating for that period.
Note: Temporary credit limits are not supported on balance-amount and overdraft meters; if a temporary credit limit is added to an underlying balance, that temporary credit limit is used to calculate the credit limit of the balance-amount or overdraft meter.

SubMan APIs

The response of the following SubMan APIs includes a field, IsTemporaryCreditLimit, to indicate whether the credit limit of a balance is temporary:
  • MtxRequestSubscriptionQuery
  • MtxRequestSubscriberQuery
  • MtxRequestGroupQuery
  • MtxRequestSubscriberQueryWallet
  • MtxRequestGroupQueryWallet

Any notification configured to include the balance information of subscribers or groups indicates if the credit limit of a balance is temporary.

For information about adding and removing temporary credit limits using the AddThreshold and RemoveThreshold APIs, see the discussion about MtxRequestSubscriberAddThreshold and MtxRequestGroupAddThreshold in MATRIXX Subscriber Management API. For information about notifications, see the discussion about MATRIXX Notification Framework in MATRIXX Integration.

Events

An MtxMeterPeriodCloseEvent is generated when a private balance or meter temporary credit limit expires and the non-temporary credit limit becomes applicable. The event includes details of the periodic balance credit floor and credit for the next periodic balance, and the temporary credit limit for the closing period of the balance. If thresholds are added to meter close event occurrences, the event indicates that it was reset from a previous temporary value. For more information, see the discussion about MtxMeterPeriodCloseEvent in MATRIXX Integration.