Do you think your (potential) customers hate the fact they are billed automatically to keep access to your membership website / service? Right now I am in the process of setting up a new membership website and I would like to charge the customers automatically every 6 or 12 months but when looking at the list of supported payment processors that would also allow me to process recurring payments I am slowly coming to a conclusion it may be a better idea to let the customers simply "prepay" their access to my website and then ask them to pay for another 6 or 12 months period - but without doing it automatically. This way I'd be able to use many more payment processors. And if the customers are indeed reluctant to subscribe to a recurringly billed service it could also possibly ease the psychological stress they face before hitting that order button. What do you think? Have you ever been offering access to your product / service both on the recurring billing and "prepay" basis and can you give me some insight on whether more customers chose the prepay / "one-time payment" option over the recurring billing one? Thanks! Tomas
Tomas, I believe rebilling a customer after 12 months is not good idea. You can setup monthly recurring billing and it will work. For longer periods it will cause lot of chargebacks.
That's what I thought But even not counting the number of potential chargebacks, if the user sees on your order form "You will be rebilled automatically every X months", doesn't this make them worried? I mean, I have no scientific proof but I am quite sure people generally do not like to have their CC billed automatically and it may be that little detail that would make them not order your product, right? Or do you believe they don't mind? Tomas
how about this -- I would not mind check-mark a box giving aMember permission to charge me every X month (or annually) until I cancel it (un-check the box). Meanwhile, I should get an email saying I signed up for charge back permission every x month (or annual) and I need to click a link to confirm this (similiar to confirming when you sign up an email listing). Is this possible?
It is easier - you just setup non-recurring billing with aMember, and once subscription expires, user can visit /amember/member.php and renew subscription. It is basically the same, and it is possible to do just as you described. As confirmation of user, he will be asked to enter credit card number again. I believe once in a year it is not a problem.
From a marketing perspective, it is all in the wording... I haven't had anyone complain about the monthly automatic billing that I do - but, I am talking with my members every week (sending out a report every week). I think if you are reminding them of what they are paying for on a regular basis, they won't complain. As far as wording - try something like: "After the trial period if you decide to continue your subscription you don't have to do anything! Paypal will take care of billing you automatically every month. Of course you can cancel at anytime - and if you cancel before the trial is over, you will never be charged." I wouldn't have people pay anually on a recurring basis though - people will see the bill and wonder what it is for... but, monthly - they will get use to seeing it there Just my 2 cents... Jenni www.jennihunt.com
Thanks for the info Jenni! By the way, is it just me or this dboard doesn't send notification emails when someone writes a new post in a thread I am subscribed to? Tomas