Have been using PayPal for our sites (using paypal_r plugin). Here are the pros and cons of the plugin/PayPal from my perspective as it stands today [3.1.8PRO ($Reivsion: 3695 $)] Pros: No need to store credit card details in the database (= no SSL/PCI Compliance to worry about) Recurring subscriptions happen automatically Recurring subscriptions have customer 'price guarantee' (ie subscription terms stays the same even if the product changes later) Easy to setup PayPal can be a positive 'reassurance' for some customers Cons: Customer needs to have / sign up for a PayPal account for recurring payments - which puts some people off Not possible to vary subscriber terms without cancelling/re-adding subscription The 'recurring' end date set on subscriptions can cause problems if customer orders other products in the same price group (e.g. wants to switch to a different pay period) New subscriptions always start 'today', even if there was a product still active in the same price group, instead of adding to the term. PayPal not handling tax on subscriptions (this is not a plugin issue) causes problems with other IPN returns (e.g. affiliate software) which need to pay commissions net of tax. I've been looking at the ClickBank plugin [3.0.8PRO ($Revision: 3722 $)] (though have not yet set up a CB account and tested), but it looks like this plugin might solve a couple of key issues with PayPal... namely: No need for customer to sign up to clickbank Tax wrinkles handled by CB (CB is a 'reseller', so all transactions are with CB, not customer => same or no tax for all sales to CB) Plugin sets proper expiry dates for each period, so no 'recurring' date issues - plays nicely with other payment methods. Affiliates handled by CB All the while providing the same 'Pros' as PayPal... Obviously, I need to run up a CB account and test, but can anybody running amember with ClickBank (especially if you are Europe based) confirm the pros and cons of this plugin in practice, and any considerations when running it with paypal_r. Cheers Rob
Paypal takes a pretty small fee 35cent + about 2.5%- clickbank much larger, around 10%. Clickbank- allows a max number of payments of 99, so if you bill monthly that would be 8.25 years, a long time, but still a fixed term. Clickbank- you need approval for each new product, this can take a few days. Clickbank- affiliate system pays out a set % (up to 75%) for 1st and recurring. So you cant pay 100% for 1st payment, then lower or nothing for recurring. I have many members using clickbank and happy with it- same with paypal. I use both clickbank and paypal. David
Thanks David - appreciate your input in this. Can I just ask - how do you manage these two together to make sure that customers referred via clickbank pay via clickbank? Thanks Rob
ah, meant on different sites. But you could use them on the same site- you just need to be careful about what signup page you send them to (custom signup page needed) and also have a slight customization made on the members page to show a clickbank or paypal payment form input for backend products. David
Question about Paypal: If someone signs up for a recurring billing membership, but at checkout chooses not to sign in paypal, and instead "Click here to pay with credit or bank account", how does Paypal handle the recurring charges then?
From what I remember, in order to buy a subscription product via PayPal, the user MUST have a PayPal account.
What happens when the user reaches the maximum payments of 99? How exactly does the user keep making their payments? Does the user get a special notice from Clickbank letting them know that they need to reorder the product through aMember to keep their subscription active? I would think that long-term customers could be lost due to the 99 payment limitation.
Clickbank has added an "Unlimited" checkbox- so no limits. Im not sure how changing this would affect already registered members. David