Can we subscribe with a credit card yet?

[Kzach]

As one of a select group of elite individuals who have lifted themselves up from the tyranny and evil that is PayPal, I have been unable to maintain a subscription to ENW for several years.

Having recently received a discount code on a silver subscription as an incentive to buy a subscription, I looked into it and couldn't find what payment options were available without going through the actual process of subscribing.

So, can we use a credit card yet to subscribe?

If not, I'll reiterate a question I've posed several times here; why not?

Although I accept that it's probably different from country to country, I know that setting up a merchant account with a bank in Australia is quite easy and costs very little and enables you to accept VISA & Mastercard Credit and Debit card transactions, without the mess and inconvenience of PayPal. Is this really not an option?

 

[Morrus]

It's a little more complex than that - we're not set up to store cc details or directly handle transactions; it would need a substantial amount of coding work. It's not something vbulletin does natively, and commercial products don't interface with vbulletin, so we'd have to write our own software. Not a cheap prospect.

 

[chriton227]

As an alternative to doing it completely in-house, would it be possible to add Amazon Payments and/or Google Checkout as alternate payment processors for those adverse to using PayPal?

 

[Kzach]

If I understand correctly, you have (or had, I can't seem to find any link to RPGNow anymore) an arrangement with RPGNow to sell ENW products? They handle VISA and Mastercard credit and debit cards. Or alternatively, selling subscriptions through CafePress?

I know those options wouldn't be automated within the vbulletin system but on receiving a payment, someone could manually change a user's permissions to whatever subscription level/period they bought, couldn't they?

It probably seems insignificant because people don't speak up about it, but there are honestly a LOT of people who refuse to use PayPal. I'd be willing to bet that you'd see a not insignificant upswing of subscriptions and other sales if you could somehow incorporate an alternative to PayPal.

I'm not sure about Google Checkout or Amazon Payments, or how they'd tie-in with vBulletin, but I'm guessing they work in similar fashion to PayPal which makes them just as bad.

I did a quick search and found this:

Add Google Checkout to Paid Subscriptions - vBulletin.org Forum

But in looking at the charges to the service provider, they seem a bit... ouchie. I can't remember what PayPal charged so it might be competitive but honestly, Google Checkout looks very similar to the scam that is PayPal.

 

[Morrus]

If I understand correctly, you have (or had, I can't seem to find any link to RPGNow anymore) an arrangement with RPGNow to sell ENW products? They handle VISA and Mastercard credit and debit cards.

They also take nearly half your gross revenue.

I know those options wouldn't be automated within the vbulletin system but on receiving a payment, someone could manually change a user's permissions to whatever subscription level/period they bought, couldn't they?

That, too. The volume of people startng and cancelling subscriptions is pretty high.

Add Google Checkout to Paid Subscriptions - vBulletin.org Forum

But in looking at the charges to the service provider, they seem a bit... ouchie. I can't remember what PayPal charged so it might be competitive but honestly, Google Checkout looks very similar to the scam that is PayPal.

That might be useful - I'll take a look.

 

[Kzach]

They also take nearly half your gross revenue.

Wow, that's even more evil than PayPal. Although, PayPal charges both the merchant and the buyer and screws them on deposits and withdrawals. At least RPGNow only screws the merchant