PayPal® Services / A Quick Comparison

[Jason Caldwell]

1. PayPal® Standard ( free )
- You only pay processing fees per transaction
- Customers checkout @ PayPal® ( NOT on your site )
- "Buy Now" transactions do NOT require a Customer to have a PayPal® account.
- But, recurring "Subscriptions" DO require a Customer to have a PayPal® account ( always ).

2. PayPal® Standard + ERP ( Enhanced Recurring Payments ) = $19.99/mo.
* Note * In the UK, ERP ( Enhanced Recurring Payments ) is called: Premium Services.
- Customer checks out @ PayPal® ( NOT on your site )
- Same as PayPal® Standard, except...
Customers are NO longer required to have a PayPal® account ( ever ), even for Subscriptions.

3. PayPal® Pro ( $30/mo + optional Recurring Billing service ) = $60/mo total.
This allows you to keep Customers on your site throughout the entire checkout process. You can accept Visa, MasterCard, Amex, Discover, Maestro, Solo, and ALSO offer PayPal® as an option to those who prefer to pay with PayPal®.

In the end, we highly recommend PayPal® Pro. The features provided by this service far outweigh the price of the service, even for novice site owners. Increased conversion rates make a HUGE difference, and s2Member Pro running together with your PayPal® Pro account will make that happen. PayPal® also has very competitive pricing, compared to other services of it's kind.

Incidentally, other services ( i.e. Authorize.net for instance ) would NOT include PayPal® in their list of options to you ( which is another great reason to choose PayPal® Pro ). It consolidates your financials into ONE account, rather than having a PayPal® account, and ALSO another merchant bank account, and another gateway provider. Having a PayPal® Pro account keeps your transactions all in one system; for easier reporting and simplified customer service.

On most sites, conversion rates increase by over 20% - because you're accepting Visa, MasterCard, Amex, Discover, Maestro, and Solo ( directly on your site ) - AND also, you're offering PayPal® as an option to those who prefer to pay with PayPal®. In other words, with PayPal® Pro, you're keeping Customers on your site throughout the entire checkout process. You can control the surrounding elements on the page, the flow of events, and do a better job at building confidence in your products/services.

---

PayPal® Pro improves conversion rates.
Even for a small site, if this means 3 extra sales per month,
that usually covers the cost of your PayPal® Pro account.

Intro Videos: PayPal® Pro & PayPal® Express Checkout

PayPal® Pro ( our top choice for s2Member Pro integration ):
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?c ... ew-outside

Compare PayPal® services at PayPal.com.
Please visit this link: https://merchant.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/ ... p_products

---

---

For the benefit of other readers... If you are declined for PayPal® Pro, or you simply cannot afford PayPal® Pro ... ERP ( Enhanced Recurring Payments ) is a great alternative. This doesn't give you a completely seamless checkout experience, but at least your Customers won't be "forced" to have a PayPal® account in order to pay you on a recurring basis. See: Enhanced Recurring Payments.
Or, if you're a UK Business, see: Premium Services ( same thing by a different name )

[webamin]

I was hoping someone could tell me their experience with Paypal. What Paypal service worked best for you? Are the transactions secure? Has anyone used a different merchant account and liked it better? I'm wanting to find the best option for secure transactions that don't cost a lot of money per transaction. Also, has anyone used paypal to pay employees? Would this work for payroll? Thanks!

[Raam Dev]

Notes on canceling Enhanced Recurring Payments and upgrading to Website Payments Pro

After upgrading to s2Member Pro, I decided to also upgrade my PayPal account to Website Payments Pro (also called PayPal Pro). I already had PayPal's Enhanced Recurring Payments (ERP) service, which I was using with the free version of s2Member.

However, when I decided to upgrade PayPal's website told me that I had to cancel my PayPal Enhanced Recurring Payments (ERP) service before I could upgrade to Website Payments Pro.

This worried me as I already had half a dozen subscribers who had signed up with me while I had the ERP service. I called PayPal to make sure that my existing ERP subscribers wouldn't have to resubscribe if I cancelled ERP.

The customer service rep that I spoke with told me that my existing subscribers would be cancelled when I cancelled ERP and that I'd have to get them to resubscribe (however, this wasn't the case; see below).

Canceling Enhanced Recurring Payments

When I clicked the "Cancel Enhanced Recurring Payments" link in the sidebar of my Preapproved Payments dashboard, this was the message I received:

You've canceled your service

You successfully canceled your Enhanced Recurring Payments service.

Remember, you won't be able to accept new Automatic or Installment Plan payments after you cancel. But, you'll still be able to accept them from the customers already enrolled.

If you decide to cancel, remember to remove the buttons from your website.

Note that the message explains that you won't be able to accept "new" Automatic or Installment Plan payments after canceling. It mentions nothing about the existing subscriptions being cancelled.

I then received the following email from PayPal:

Dear Raam Dev,

Your Enhanced Recurring Payments package has been canceled.

We'll continue processing payments from the customers who still owe you under the installment plan, but you won't be able to add new customers, unless you sign up for this package again.

If you have any questions, call us toll-free at 1-888-221-1161.

Sincerely,
PayPal

This time PayPal explains that they will continue processing payments from existing customers "who still owe you under the installment plan". They make no mention of subscriptions, but its been three days since I cancelled ERP and all my existing subscribers still have active subscriptions and have not been canceled.

My subscribers are charged monthly, so I suppose there's a chance they'll be cancelled when the next charge attempt is made, but I think that's unlikely. (If this changes in the next 30 days, I will come back here and update this post).

How this affects s2Member

None of my s2Member accounts have been affected by this process as far as I can tell.

Since I upgraded to s2Member Pro and I'm now using Pro Forms with PayPal Website Payments Pro, my cancellation process involves my subscribers logging into their s2Member account and canceling using the Cancellation page that I set up (WP Admin -> s2Member -> PayPal Pro Forms -> PayPal Pro Billing Cancellation Forms).

The subscribers who signed up when I had my ERP service active probably can't cancel their accounts through the cancellation form I set up with s2Member Pro, but I haven't tested this yet.

They can, however, cancel their subscriptions through their own PayPal accounts (the same method they would've used when I had the ERP service), and the PayPal IPN messages will inform s2Member that their account should be deactivated when that happens. (Again, I haven't tested this, but it should work in theory.)

I'll come back and update this with any new information as I get it.

Update: It has been exactly 1 month since I cancelled ERP and upgraded to Website Payments Pro. None of my previous subscribers (who signed up while I had ERP) have been canceled and I'm still receiving subscription payments from them. This tells me that PayPal Customer Service techs are being misinformed as to what happens when canceling ERP. Your existing subscribers are not canceled.

[jamesmd]

Can I use option 1 in your original post without upgrading to s2Memeber Pro?

[Raam Dev]

Hi jamesmd,

Yes, option 1 in the original post (PayPal® Standard ( free )) can be used with the free version of s2Member.

[jamesmd]

Sorry, I meant option 2!

Can I use Option 2 in the OP without upgrading to s2Member Pro?

[Raam Dev]

Yes, you can use Option 2, PayPal® Standard + ERP ( Enhanced Recurring Payments ), without upgrading to s2Member Pro.