Remaining days until subscription expires/needs to be renewed

Question

We have a subscription-based model and we present to the user a count of the days until the subscription needs to be renewed.

Some places we present "You have X number of days until your subscription expires" and in other places we "You have X number of days remaining".

How this is interpreted internally differs. So, if it's Monday and the subscription expires on Friday at Midnight, our product will display "5 days until expiration", but the website to express "You have 4 days remaining".

The idea that we should use the lower number is appealing, but I ask others who might have some guidance and best practice information.

Also, terminology for such matters; subscription expires vs. days remaining, etc.

Answer 1

I would take the website view.

Looking at it from the final day, letting me know I have 1 day remaining would indicate 24 hours left (which would only be the case @ midnight on Thursday). If I then come back tomorrow, and find my subscription has expired, I would be annoyed.

If the response could be tailored to show number of hours on the final day, then I would accept that, but having a message of "Your subscription expires today" would be much better in imparting the urgency required for action.