XF 2.0 Subscribe through Paypal without Paypal account?

[ibrian]

I've set up member subscriptions using a Paypal payment profile, but members are saying they are being made to setup a Paypal account to make their payments and this isn't going down well.

Is it possible for member upgrades to go through Paypal simply as a payment processor, without having to set up an account with Paypal? I just wondered if I've missed a setting somewhere.

 

[DragonFlames]

I've used PayPal for subs for many years and it seems to work great, with or without an account.

I suggest you try it and see what you are shown, so perhaps using a test ID on your system and clicking the subscription upgrade and seeing what PayPal offer you. It should be options to sign in, open an account, or to make the payment without an account.

Once you have checked what is being shown you can of course explain it to anyone who misunderstands what is being said to them by PayPal. I'd perhaps consider capturing the screen with the options on it and show them the important bit with an arrow aimed at what they should be looking for.

Hope the thoughts help.

 

[ibrian]

Actually, thinking about it, the need for recurring subscriptions probably requires an account to store the information, as opposed to a one-off payment which Paypal Express could handle.

 

[DragonFlames]

We use PayPal for all payments. Our subs are monthly and charge users every month on an ongoing basis. I don't see why it couldn't just do that to their credit cards but you may be right that an account is deemed to be needed for that so the user can login and end the sub when they want to and so on. We also accept donations of set amounts and they are not ongoing and certainly no account could be needed for that.

I've always tested anything we put up on PayPal myself with a test account and it is the simple way to be sure what applies when. You don't need to take it as far as making an actual payment.

One of the few downsides of the PayPal subs system seems to be that if the users credit card expires it will give them and us warnings and try again but often it gets to PayPal cancelling their sub altogether because it could not make a charge against their registered card. In those cases I send the member a message saying there is a problem with their card as setup with PayPal and they need to update it to regain member access to the system. Most do update their card and then they rejoin the same way they did originally.