paypal recurring payments and paypal pro - paypal

I am trying to implement paypal pro (our software should work for an italian account) for recurring payments.
I cannot use "express checkout" beacuse a subscription can vary more than the 15% limitation in 180 days and we don't have a trial period.
I have downloaded samples from paypal for .net, created a sandbox account from the developer dashboard but when i test it, i give an error message "DPRP is disabled for this merchant".
Later i have read that recurring payments are enabled for "direct payments" but they are enabled only in US, UK, Canada and New Zealand.
In Paypal Pro for Italy documentation i have not found any information for Recurring Payments.
How can I create a recurring payment in Paypal without "express checkout" then?

With an Italian PayPal account you're not going to be able to use Payments Pro.
What you could do, though, is use Express Checkout with Billing Agreements / Reference Transactions instead of setting up a recurring payments profile. This way you won't have the 15% limitation.
You would include the billing agreement parameters in your SetExpressCheckout request, and then that would setup the billing agreement so that you can run future calls to DoReferenceTransaction to process some amount in the future using the billing agreement.
This way the process happens without additional approval, no redirect required, etc. You just make the DoReferenceTransaction call and the money is moved immediately. Reference transactions can be any amount, so you would have no limitation there.
The only difference with this method is that you'll need to create a CRON job on your server that loops through all your due accounts each day to run the reference transaction for each one. So you're basically building your own recurring system instead of using PayPal's.
If you happen to be working with PHP this PayPal PHP SDK will make all of the API calls very quick and easy for you.

Related

Website subscriptions via Express Checkout Recurring Payments

I'm trying to implement a recurring subscription to a website using PayPal Express Checkout Recurring Payments. One requirement is that creating the initial subscription should be as quick as possible: once the customer confirms the purchase, the merchant should receive the money and activate the subscription in a couple of minutes tops.
As far as I understand, I have the following options to go with:
use CreateRecurringPaymentsProfile only, with billing starting now
use CreateRecurringPaymentsProfile with initial payment, starting now
use DoExpressCheckoutPayment followed by CreateRecurringPaymentsProfile starting now + 1 billing period
Initial testing in the sandbox has shown that plain CreateRecurringPaymentsProfile schedules payments once a day, which rules this option out. Option 2 (Recurring Payments Profile with an initial payment) looked promising -- payments usually went through in a couple of seconds -- until the initial payments started being delayed by half an hour or more.
So, a couple of questions:
What is the intented way to implement on-line recurring payments via PayPal?
Does the sandbox share payment scheduling behavior with the live site?
What is the intented way to implement on-line recurring payments via PayPal?
Answer:The recurring payment via Express Checkout is a good way.
The subscription button via Website Payments Standard is also a good way which is more easy to implement.
Does the sandbox share payment scheduling behavior with the live site?
Answer:yes, sandbox has the same payment scheduling behavior as live.
BTW, if you want initial payment be charged right away, you should use Option 3, initial payment will be changed right away after DoExpressCheckoutPayment.
Option 2 only guarantee initial payment be charged in 24 hours.

Preapproval API scenario in trial credit scenario

We want to offer a online service that uses a credit system.
Initially we want to offer x amount of credits as a free trial. To activate this trial the user agrees to a subscription via PayPal (but does not pay anything at that time)
1) Is it possible to set up using Preapproval API, if not is there a better suited API
2) Can it be setup through PayPal so that the user does not need an existing PayPal account or to create a new one. If there is a way to do this other than preapproval API please let me know as well.
3) We want the billing to be automatic when the user credits run out. Therefore there is no set time, e.g 1 month, when each user is charged. Is this possible?
Any help would be very much appreciated, thanks
You have a few different options:
Reference Transactions (no cost requires approval from PayPal)
Enhanced Recurring Billing/Automatic Payments (cannot be used with a Pro or Advanced Accounts) Has a cost associated with it ($19.99 monthly)
Recurring Billing with PayPal Payments Pro Payflow or PayPal Payments Advanced. Has a cost associated with it ($10.00 monthly in addition to the cost of the Payflow/Advanced account)
Here are the details from the three different options:
Reference Transactions, which does require that you call into PayPal Customer Support and that your account is approved for this feature.
Reference transactions does allow for guest checkout billing.
From the PayPal Documentation, Recurring payments using reference transactions enable you to handle payments for varying amounts of money on a varying schedule.
Reference Transaction Guide
Enhanced Recurring Billing/Automatic Billing
If you do not plan to uses PayPal Payments Pro or Advanced at any time you can get setup with Enhanced Recurring Billing/ Automatic Billing
Automatic Billing Guide
From the PayPal Documentation:
You can create Automatic Billing buttons for your website by using a tool on the PayPal website. If you're a power user, you can write the HTML code for PayPal hosted Automatic Billing buttons yourself.
With Automatic Billing buttons, buyers agree to pay you automatically when you bill them, up to a limit that they choose. You set the parameters for the limits they choose. Automatic billing allows Guest Checkout, so you can bill a credit card.
PayPal Payments Pro Payflow/Advanced
For PayPal Payments Pro Payflow/Advanced you can setup Recurring Billing as well. Payflow Pro allows you to process credit cards directly. Here is the information on Recurring Billing through Payflow:
Payflow Recurring Billing

Paypal direct Recurring Payments using credit/debit card not working on live. DPRP disabled for this merchant.

I am using the Paypal API Payments Pro to set up recurring payments on my website using credit/debit card, everything worked perfect on Sandbox but on live it gives me error DPRP is disabled for this merchant. I have called Paypal several times and all they do is confuse me and they never let me talk to their technical team. i have alreday purchased the additional recurring billing service with Paypal Payment Pro. This is what i get as response from Paypal.
{"TIMESTAMP":"2013%2d08%2d27T17%3a18%3a08Z","CORRELATIONID":"6xxxxxxx65e8","ACK":"Failure","VERSION":"86%2e0","BUILD":"7xxxx78","L_ERRORCODE0":"11586","L_SHORTMESSAGE0":"DPRP%20is%20disabled%2e","L_LONGMESSAGE0":"DPRP%20is%20disabled%20for%20this%20merchant%2e","L_SEVERITYCODE0":"Error"}}
DPRP stands for DirectPayment RecurringPayments. With the old Payments Pro you had to pay $30/mo for Pro itself and then another $30/mo on top of that for recurring payments. Until you were approved and agreed to the additional $30/mo you would get that error. So what it essentially means is you don't have DPRP enabled on your PayPal account right now.
You mentioned that you already signed up for Recurring Billing. It sounds to me like you're on the new version of PayPal Pro which uses the PayPal Manager and the PayFlow Gateway. This is a separate API from DoDirectPayment or CreateRecurringPaymentsProfile. So they've got you enabled for PayFlow, but you're trying to use the old API.
What you need to do is either re-develop your stuff using the PayFlow API or get PayPal to set you up on Website Payments Pro 3.0, which is the old version that used DDP and CRPP. If you tell them you've already developed everything using that API they should go ahead and turn it on for you so you don't have to redo everything. The thing that could be troublesome is the fee structure of DPRP. Again, it's $60/mo when you get it all enabled, but the new one is cheaper. They can redo the fee structure for you to match what you get with PayFlow, and if you can get in touch with the right person, they will, but sometimes that can be tough.
If you have a bunch of trouble getting somebody to help you contact me directly and I can get you in touch with one of my contacts at PayPal that will help you out.
If you happen to be using PHP you might be interested in my PHP Class Library for PayPal which makes the PayFlow integration very simple if you decide you just want to redevelop your stuff.
If you're interested in a better understanding of the different Payments Pro versions you can take a look at this article I wrote not long ago.

recurring payment with paypal advanced NOT paypal pro

I am trying to make recurring payment work with PAYPAL ADVANCED
My script works in case of SALE transactions but there are issues when i try to create recurring profile.
ISSUES
When i am posting my request with CREATESECURETOKEN set to Y. It returns Invalid transaction type: Invalid Transaction Type for secure token creation request
Here is the string. Note i have changed user and pass here
PARTNER[6]=PayPal&VENDOR[10]=#####&USER[11]=#####&PWD[9]=#####&CREATESECURETOKEN[1]=Y&TRXTYPE[1]=R&RECURRING[1]=Y&TENDER[1]=C&ACTION[1]=A&PROFILENAME[6]=Gautam&ACCT[16]=4012888888881881&EXPDATE[4]=1214&AMT[5]=10.00&START[8]=06132013&PAYPERIOD[4]=MONT&TERM[1]=0&OPTIONALTRX[1]=S&OPTIONALTRXAMT[4]=2.00&EMAIL[20]=#####&SECURETOKENID[26]=MySecTokenID-51b93e0830f70&RETURNURL[51]=http://localhost:8080/php/test/payflow/advanced.php&CANCELURL[51]=http://localhost:8080/php/test/payflow/advanced.php&ERRORURL[51]=http://localhost:8080/php/test/payflow/advanced.php&BILLTOFIRSTNAME[4]=John&BILLTOLASTNAME[3]=Doe&BILLTOSTREET[12]=123 Main St.&BILLTOCITY[8]=San Jose&BILLTOSTATE[2]=CA&BILLTOZIP[5]=95101&BILLTOCOUNTRY[2]=US&SHIPTOFIRSTNAME[4]=Jane&SHIPTOLASTNAME[5]=Smith&SHIPTOSTREET[13]=1234 Park Ave&SHIPTOCITY[8]=San Jose&SHIPTOSTATE[2]=CA&SHIPTOZIP[5]=95101&SHIPTOCOUNTRY[2]=US
if i set CREATESECURETOKEN to N i receive Invalid merchant information: 10002-You do not have permissions to make this API call
I searched for documentation on recurring payment with paypal advanced but every where i found details about payflow pro. With no information about recurring payment with paypal advanced its not easy to make things work.
Any idea about what is wrong with my post data?.
I posted my query on paypal.com/mts a week back but have no reply.
NOTE: I have subscribed to paypal advanced and paypal recurring payment.
With paypal advanced the transactions are completed on the client website itself and user is never taken to paypal site. Yes it uses iframe for the purpose.
It works for SALE type transaction but not in case of recurring payment.
Payments Pro and Advanced don't support the Recurring Payment API calls. You would be using the Recurring Billing API calls through Payflow. The new Advanced and Pro accounts use Payflow Pro or Link.
Are you setting a billing type in the Secure Token call?
What is the ticket number you submitted? I'd to look up the account to see if the account is setup to use Recurring Billing and was created correctly.
Also, Advanced accounts shouldn't be using the Recurring Billing API calls. It is possible to create Recurring Billing profiles with an Advanced account but they have to be done through the PayPal Manager site.

Import existing recurring donations into Paypal

Currently I am working with several non-profits (who receive recurring donations normally monthly) to migrate away from their current gateways to Paypal.
Is there any way to import their currently donor's payment information into Paypal?
If not which would you recommend to help migrate their donors over?
1) Setup a special section of their website and as donor's to re-subscribe?
or
2) Send out Invoices for their current recurring amount (if its possible to email a subscription)?
thanks,
This depends on what type of system you are currently using, and specifically what type of service you are going to use from PayPal. Are you going to be using PayPal's Recurring Payments, Enhanced Recurring Payments, Subscriptions or Payflow's Recurring Billing? If you have all of the contributor's information, such as credit card info, name, address and etc and you are going to be using PayPal's Recurring Payments or Payflow's Recurring Billing you could use the API's to create the profiles on your PayPal or Payflow account without having to have the contributor do anything on their end. If you are going to be using PayPal's Enhanced Recurring Payments or Subscriptions, then you would need the buyer to re sign up for a recurring donation. You can could use either option that you mentioned above. You would be able to do either through PayPal.