Paypal and vBulletin

[Lacrosse Boy]

Every year I do a revamp of the website of the dance studio where I work (which is one of my jobs, among studio maintenance, office work, etc.) It's been interesting seeing how far the site has come just by taking a peek in the Internet Archive. Now it's cleaner, easier to navigate, has more features and much more professional looking. This year we've gotten tons of complements... (Well, I spent a month working on it to get it all perfect!?)

Anyhow, last year I brought up to my boss the idea of people being able to pay their bills online. With the software we use, we are able to send bills out online. We would purchase a vBulletin license and upgrade from Ikonboard 3.1.2a for that site if I got a low-down on how this works.

There are a few things we'd like to know:

1. Is there the ability for a user to pay a certain fixed amount every month (IE monthly tuition)? (i.e. $55 will be subtracted automatically every month)
2. Is there the ability for them to pay as much as they'd like at a time? (ie... Tuition + Costume Charges + Photographs + Miscellaneous Charges = $165.64 -> so put this amount in online)
3. How much does PayPal or NoChex take out per payment? Is it a flat amount per month, a percentage taken out for every payment, etc?

The site is heavily integrated with Ikonboard, so that it would be easier to post new information quickly as it arises, allows us to have an integrated photo gallery, and a discussion board.

However, if this thing with Paypal works out, in the summer we'll purchase a license and I'll begin doing my redesign.

Honestly, it's fun redesigning every year, and I learn so much!

Anyhow, enough rambling. If you could answer my questions, that would be awesome!

[Kaelon]

Your question is far more appropriate for PayPal personnel, given that it largely has to do with PayPal's recurring scheme. That said, PayPal has recurring subscriptions that you can define on the fly (e.g., $55 monthly, recurring until either the subscriber or the merchant). However, PayPal does not support partial invoicing - that is, you cannot send them a bill, and have the customers pay a portion of that bill. Furthermore, PayPal, 2CheckOut, and other providers, take both a flat amount as well as a percentage of the sale (usually between 3.9% and 5.5%, depending upon the provider and the amount on the sale) on commission with each transaction.

I hope this helps. Honestly, you'll want to take a look at PayPal and judge for yourself the flexibility. Though the latest version of vBulletin (3.0.0) offers an unprecedented level of integration with user accounts and subscription-level access, we are a far way away from full control using PayPal and other lower-end merchant solutions. It would probably be easier getting a merchant credit card account, and coding your own software to enable the highly specialized functionality that you seek.

That said, for non-complicated billing solutions - the types that most content-based websites do, like mine, using PayPal is pretty simple.

[Lacrosse Boy]

Originally Posted by Kaelon

Your question is far more appropriate for PayPal personnel, given that it largely has to do with PayPal's recurring scheme. That said, PayPal has recurring subscriptions that you can define on the fly (e.g., $55 monthly, recurring until either the subscriber or the merchant). However, PayPal does not support partial invoicing - that is, you cannot send them a bill, and have the customers pay a portion of that bill. Furthermore, PayPal, 2CheckOut, and other providers, take both a flat amount as well as a percentage of the sale (usually between 3.9% and 5.5%, depending upon the provider and the amount on the sale) on commission with each transaction.

I hope this helps. Honestly, you'll want to take a look at PayPal and judge for yourself the flexibility. Though the latest version of vBulletin (3.0.0) offers an unprecedented level of integration with user accounts and subscription-level access, we are a far way away from full control using PayPal and other lower-end merchant solutions. It would probably be easier getting a merchant credit card account, and coding your own software to enable the highly specialized functionality that you seek.

That said, for non-complicated billing solutions - the types that most content-based websites do, like mine, using PayPal is pretty simple.

Okay, I understand.

I'm currently looking at their website, and so say we wanted to do a combination of their Merchant Tools: Subscritions and Recurring Payments, as well as Donations.

The subscritipions would be for tuition, and the donations would be for a custom amount of money (i.e. other charges which are on their accounts). Do I have the ability to use both at the same time in the same account with PayPal, or does it require multiple accounts.

Plus, will it say "Donate to Metro" on the payment form?

The world of online payments is completely new to me... and the Paypal website isn't exactly clear.

[Kaelon]

The subscritipions would be for tuition, and the donations would be for a custom amount of money (i.e. other charges which are on their accounts). Do I have the ability to use both at the same time in the same account with PayPal, or does it require multiple accounts.

Plus, will it say "Donate to Metro" on the payment form?

Yes, you can use both. And, when you create a new payment scheme via PayPal, you can customize precisely what the payment/product is entitled (e.g., "Monthly Subscription Fee for Dance Lessons" or "Donation to Metro", etc.)