Credits and what they cost

Because a credit is spent when a check runs, never on what the check finds. No movement, nothing new, an unchanged plaza, no alert raised — every one of those is a check that happened and a credit that is gone. See what it went on, lorry by lorry, on Activity.

Yes. A portal that did not answer, an empty result and a new crossing all cost the same one credit, because the asking is what is charged. That is why retrying a registration number the portal will not answer only buys errors.

No. Alerts and their delivery are free — the only things that spend credits are a manual search, at one credit, and an automatic check, at one credit.

Credits you have paid for never expire: they survive your plan ending, they survive a renewal, and they are still there months later. Free trial credits are the one exception — they belong to the trial and the unused balance is cleared when it ends.

They are cleared. Trial credits are not lifetime credits — they were free, the trial is over, and whatever is left goes with it, so the leftover cannot be spent later or restored by buying a plan. A plan starts a fresh term from the day you buy it and brings credits of its own.

No. The credits are yours, they never expire, and they still pay for manual searches on Search. What ends with the plan is automatic tracking and the ability to top up.

A top-up needs a plan that is running right now, and not a trial — so an expired plan, the free trial, or never having bought a plan are all refused. Buy or renew a plan on Plan and credits; a plan brings credits with it, and you can add a top-up to the same payment.

No. The charge is one credit per lorry per check, not per alert, so several alerts falling due on the same lorry at the same moment share one charge. A faster interval costs more; more rules on the same interval do not.

Activity breaks the spending down by day and by lorry, and Credit history is the statement of everything added and used that got the balance to today's number.

Slow the interval down and pause what you are not watching — those are the only two levers, because the number of checks a day is the spend a day. A paused lorry keeps every crossing it recorded, costs nothing while it sits there, and frees a slot on your plan.