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This seems to be e really strong competitor to stripe.com. But what all these services are lacking at the moment is international support.

by eliaskg 15y ago

matthewking 15y ago
Doesn't look like you can make payment requests via the API without sending the card owner to the gocardless site first. Our need is to be able to take a customers card details, store it with a provider (and get an auth code) and then bill that card via an API. Hopefully they'll expand on their current offering soon, UK businesses really need more options in this market.
- alexchamberlain 15y ago
  GoCardless don't charge cards... they take Direct Debits.
  - matthewking 15y ago
    You're right, I've let that go straight over my head. It's the same deal though at the end of the day, as a business I want to take payments from my customers without hassling them to make manual transfers. So an id for cc details is the same as bank details from my end providing I can request payments for flexible amounts. Service providers in the UK seem to be able to change the amount I pay on direct debit agreements without anything further from me, so I assume its all possible on the banking side.
    - justincormack 15y ago
      Looking at the API, if you have the agreement set up you can make charges up to a maximum limit (that you can see) without further customer interaction. If you need to interact with the customer there are different API calls, eg to increase limit, get initial agreement.
      - matthewking 15y ago
        Interesting, thanks for pointing that out. So id have to get the customer to agree to authorise an amount larger than their current subscription fee so that it has scope to cover upgrades and extra services - something doesn't quite feel right there, maybe I'm approaching it completely wrong.
        justincormack 15y ago
        It appears so from this example, where there is a usage based fee https://gocardless.com/docs/api_guide#pre-authorization https://gocardless.com/docs/api_guide#pre-authorization I can't see any guidelines about how you are recommended to approach these types of situation. In some ways pre-setting a max limit is nice for the customer if you warn them when they approach. I know people who have been billed huge amounts on AWS without really realizing. SO long as you hand hold the customer and your pricing model is simple to understand you should be able to make it work out I would think. For upgrades there is probably no reason not to get explicit agreement (presuming it is just a checkbox really, no need to give the acount details again after all), it is variable usage that is more complex I would think.
        matthewking 15y ago
        If we are able to provide some blurb on the form then it can probably be explained adequately to alleviate any of the customers concerns, on the other hand if they just see a form asking for authorisation to take an amount over their standard subscription it probably won't work. I agree that subscriptions could change if they just have to tick a box and not provide all their details again, it's just that in our case we often provide a small variable number of one off add-on services to each customer over a month which we'd ideally not have to ask them to pay for seperately. I've signed up for their beta though and sent them an email, hopeful that its workable. If they can do what we need id be a very happy man.
        hirokitakeuchi 15y ago
        You can pass in information to display on the checkout pages. We can definitely help you with any kind of variable billing. You can come and chat with us at: https://gocardless.campfirenow.com/3ae88 https://gocardless.campfirenow.com/3ae88 [edited link]
    - alexchamberlain 15y ago
      According to the API docs, you can get customers to create a Pre-Authorisation, and then raise Bills against this authorisation.
    - hcm 15y ago
      As Alex and Justin mentioned, users can pre-authorise a given amount, optionally over a time interval (e.g. up to £100 each month). The merchant can then bill the user within this limit directly via the API.

This seems to be e really strong competitor to stripe.com. But what all these services are lacking at the moment is international support.

by eliaskg 15y ago

This seems to be e really strong competitor to stripe.com. But what all these services are lacking at the moment is international support.

matthewking 15y ago

Doesn't look like you can make payment requests via the API without sending the card owner to the gocardless site first. Our need is to be able to take a customers card details, store it with a provider (and get an auth code) and then bill that card via an API. Hopefully they'll expand on their current offering soon, UK businesses really need more options in this market.

alexchamberlain 15y ago
GoCardless don't charge cards... they take Direct Debits.
- matthewking 15y ago
  You're right, I've let that go straight over my head. It's the same deal though at the end of the day, as a business I want to take payments from my customers without hassling them to make manual transfers. So an id for cc details is the same as bank details from my end providing I can request payments for flexible amounts. Service providers in the UK seem to be able to change the amount I pay on direct debit agreements without anything further from me, so I assume its all possible on the banking side.
  - justincormack 15y ago
    Looking at the API, if you have the agreement set up you can make charges up to a maximum limit (that you can see) without further customer interaction. If you need to interact with the customer there are different API calls, eg to increase limit, get initial agreement.
    - matthewking 15y ago
      Interesting, thanks for pointing that out. So id have to get the customer to agree to authorise an amount larger than their current subscription fee so that it has scope to cover upgrades and extra services - something doesn't quite feel right there, maybe I'm approaching it completely wrong.
      - justincormack 15y ago
        It appears so from this example, where there is a usage based fee https://gocardless.com/docs/api_guide#pre-authorization https://gocardless.com/docs/api_guide#pre-authorization I can't see any guidelines about how you are recommended to approach these types of situation. In some ways pre-setting a max limit is nice for the customer if you warn them when they approach. I know people who have been billed huge amounts on AWS without really realizing. SO long as you hand hold the customer and your pricing model is simple to understand you should be able to make it work out I would think. For upgrades there is probably no reason not to get explicit agreement (presuming it is just a checkbox really, no need to give the acount details again after all), it is variable usage that is more complex I would think.
        matthewking 15y ago
        If we are able to provide some blurb on the form then it can probably be explained adequately to alleviate any of the customers concerns, on the other hand if they just see a form asking for authorisation to take an amount over their standard subscription it probably won't work. I agree that subscriptions could change if they just have to tick a box and not provide all their details again, it's just that in our case we often provide a small variable number of one off add-on services to each customer over a month which we'd ideally not have to ask them to pay for seperately. I've signed up for their beta though and sent them an email, hopeful that its workable. If they can do what we need id be a very happy man.
        hirokitakeuchi 15y ago
        You can pass in information to display on the checkout pages. We can definitely help you with any kind of variable billing. You can come and chat with us at: https://gocardless.campfirenow.com/3ae88 https://gocardless.campfirenow.com/3ae88 [edited link]
  - alexchamberlain 15y ago
    According to the API docs, you can get customers to create a Pre-Authorisation, and then raise Bills against this authorisation.
  - hcm 15y ago
    As Alex and Justin mentioned, users can pre-authorise a given amount, optionally over a time interval (e.g. up to £100 each month). The merchant can then bill the user within this limit directly via the API.