Ask HN: Best way for online payments by installments?

3 points by zeynalov 11 years ago | 2 comments

Our SaaS isn't recurring subscription based. Users get access by making one time payments.

Because our prices are too high, most clients are asking if they may pay by installments. (for example http://www.pigas.org/pricing-medical-specialization/ )

Now we have a problem, how can we build a system that we can collect money from a user even if they cancel their subscription.

Note that it's like buying a computer and paying for it monthly. You can't give it back or cancel your subscription till the whole payment is done.

We're using Stripe and Paypal payment methods on our website. Is there any way to collect money from the clients even if they cancel their subscription?

I'm from Germany and collecting money here isn't a problem, we can just send an invoice and collect money. But most of our clients are in other countries so I think we can collect only by credit cards, but I don't know if it's possible somehow to collect money even the owner tries to bypass us.

I know some companies do it. For example Car rent companies in Germany, before renting a car they need just a credit card, they don't accept cash or wire transfer. They do it because after giving the car back, they examine the car and if something is damaged, or even it's dirty, they collect money from the credit card that provided at first day. But how can we do it for our online business?

trcollinson 11 years ago |

I had a few ideas until I went and looked at your business model (which is really cool by the way!). I am not entirely sure that I would consider you a SaaS product, as much as a software assisted services company. That makes it rough. You have a 2 day email program, which looks to be 100% service based. You have a 30 day access product that then adds in a 1 hour meeting (service), a CV Optimization (service?), and a client list, which might just be access to something. If people don't pay within the 30 days and dispute their credit card charge, what recourse would you have? Probably nothing. You'd lose the money and eat the cost. I would say you really need to stick with the all upfront pricing and go with it. It's expensive, sure, but the benefits are also very high to your client and you provide a great service. Sometimes you just have to pay for a service.

logn 11 years ago |

Most businesses solve this by charging a premium for paying monthly and then don't have any sort of termination fee.

I think at ringcentral.com I get about 50% off by paying a full year in advance.

What your customers want from you is a creditor they can take advantage of. Otherwise why wouldn't they just put this on their credit card?

Also, I've never used this but see: https://developer.paypal.com/webapps/developer/docs/classic/...