Free Trial Period with Paypal Pro

[behladesign]

I was told by another developer that I need to charge a user at least $.01 for a trial period if the user is later charged the actual amount once their trial period is setup.

For Example:
Workshop Graduates sign up today to become a GAPzip Connection Member
$0.01 (One cent) for First month then $19.95:

Can you please confirm if this true or false?

[Cristián Lávaque]

The pro-form generator doesn't stop you from giving a free month first, so I think s2Member can handle it or it wouldn't let you. Test it and see how it goes.

I hope that helps.

[behladesign]

Thanks Cristian! I was mainly wondering if this is a known issue with Paypal. I had heard that paypal doesn't let you have a "free" trial period and the workaround is to charge someone $.01 / one cent for the trial period. It does have some logic.

[Cristián Lávaque]

OK. I'll email Jason about this thread and wait for his confirmation then.

[Jason Caldwell]

Thanks for your inquiry, much appreciated.

I was told by another developer that I need to charge a user at least $.01 for a trial period if the user is later charged the actual amount once their trial period is setup.

For Example:
Workshop Graduates sign up today to become a GAPzip Connection Member
$0.01 (One cent) for First month then $19.95:

Can you please confirm if this true or false?

No, that's incorrect. That is, with PayPal, regardless of whether you're using PayPal Standard Buttons, or running PayPal Pro Forms, you can always offer a 100% free trial period, and no, there is no need to charge them $0.01 cent. I suppose the only reason a site owner might do this, is simply to make sure a $0.01 charge would go through before allowing someone to access the site. In the case of PayPal, I've never found that to be necessary, as PayPal usually handles this on their own through temporary authorizations to test the validity of the funding source. Even so, charging $0.01 would never guarantee that a future charge would go through, particularly when/if the future charge is going to be much more than that. It certainly wouldn't hurt you to do it, but I would just leave this to PayPal.

[behladesign]

I tested this, and what i've found that even if you setup the button to have a completely free trial period of 0, paypal still charges $.01. Maybe you can test on your end and see if you have the same result. I think this is important to let the customer know what to expect, even if it is a penny.

[Jason Caldwell]

I tested this, and what i've found that even if you setup the button to have a completely free trial period of 0, paypal still charges $.01. Maybe you can test on your end and see if you have the same result. I think this is important to let the customer know what to expect, even if it is a penny.

A charge? Or a temporary authorization to test card validity? What does your bank say?

If it's a charge, can you please post the s2Member Shortcode that you're using please?

[behladesign]

Thanks Jason,

It's a $.01 charge from paypal. The code used is below. I'm getting a $.01 charge from paypal on both instances.

GAPzip Connection Member Subscription for Solutions Introductory Workshop Graduates - One month free then $19.95 USD for each month

[s2Member-PayPal-Button level="1" ccaps="" desc="GAPzip Connection Member Subscription for Solutions Introductory Workshop Graduates – One month free then $19.95 USD for each month" ps="paypal" lc="" cc="USD" dg="0" ns="1" custom="members.gapzip.com" ta="0" tp="1" tt="M" ra="19.95" rp="1" rt="M" rr="1" rrt="" rra="1" image="http://members.gapzip.com/wp-content/uploads/freetrial.png" output="button" /]
GAPzip Connection Member Subscription for Solutions Introductory Workshop Graduates - One month for $.01 (one cent) then $19.95 USD for each month

[s2Member-PayPal-Button level="1" ccaps="" desc="GAPzip Connection Member Subscription for Solutions Introductory Workshop Graduates – One month for $.01 then $19.95 USD for each month" ps="paypal" lc="" cc="USD" dg="0" ns="1" custom="members.gapzip.com" ta="0.01" tp="1" tt="M" ra="19.95" rp="1" rt="M" rr="1" rrt="" rra="1" image="http://members.gapzip.com/wp-content/uploads/freetrial.png" output="button" /]

[Jason Caldwell]

Thanks for the follow-up.

Interesting. I just ran these Shortcodes through a test Page.

Code: Select all

[s2Member-PayPal-Button level="1" ccaps="" desc="GAPzip Connection Member Subscription for Solutions Introductory Workshop Graduates – One month free then $19.95 USD for each month" ps="paypal" lc="" cc="USD" dg="0" ns="1" custom="members.gapzip.com" ta="0" tp="1" tt="M" ra="19.95" rp="1" rt="M" rr="1" rrt="" rra="1" image="http://members.gapzip.com/wp-content/uploads/freetrial.png" output="button" /]

( This sends me to PayPal with a 100% FREE trial, no charge at all for starting my membership ).

Code: Select all

[s2Member-PayPal-Button level="1" ccaps="" desc="GAPzip Connection Member Subscription for Solutions Introductory Workshop Graduates – One month for $.01 then $19.95 USD for each month" ps="paypal" lc="" cc="USD" dg="0" ns="1" custom="members.gapzip.com" ta="0.01" tp="1" tt="M" ra="19.95" rp="1" rt="M" rr="1" rrt="" rra="1" image="http://members.gapzip.com/wp-content/uploads/freetrial.png" output="button" /]

( This one DOES charge me $0.01, because ta="0.01" )

Am I missing something?

[behladesign]

Thanks Jason, yes, the second one will give the .01 cent charge because of ta="0.01". It also give the same .01 charge even IF i have ta="0". I have tested this multiple times and Paypal still charges that 1 penny amount. It must be something with Paypal's way of handling it. Can you test it on your end and see what the results are?

[Jason Caldwell]

Thanks for the follow-up.
Investigating now...

What type of credit card did you use please?
Or did you use a PayPal test-card? Or a PayPal account?
Was this test performed against a PayPal Sandbox account?

[behladesign]

This was an live test using paypal for checkout. I used my paypal account to fund the transaction. We also checked again with Paypal Customer Service rep and they confirmed that it's true, paypal has to charge at least $.01, that's a default charge on their system.

[Jason Caldwell]

Thanks for the follow-up.

This was an live test using paypal for checkout. I used my paypal account to fund the transaction. We also checked again with Paypal Customer Service rep and they confirmed that it's true, paypal has to charge at least $.01, that's a default charge on their system.

Hmm. While it's true that PayPal's minimum charge amount is $0.01, that only applies when you ARE charging something. In the case of a 100% free trial period, the charge amount is always $0.00, and you should NOT be charged anything. In a worst case scenario, PayPal's server would do a temporary authorization to test card validity, but that's not a charge, it's only a temporary authorization.

So far I've been unable to reproduce this bug on either a Sandbox or live instance of PayPal. I'm not saying that it's not causing YOU a problem, but I just can't reproduce on this end. While we continue to investigate this, I will refer you to this thread at PayPal, and ask that you speak directly to PayPal regarding this issue, as it might be account-specific, or have something to do with a circumstance I'm unaware of. See: https://www.x.com/developers/paypal/for ... wer-199306