Which Paypal API for preapproved payments?

Question

I'm trying to implement PayPal on a completely custom shopping cart and have been unable to figure out which API for recurring payments we need.

We ship a physical product every 2, 3, 4, 6 months so shipment and payment have to both happen together. In addition it must be easy for the user to change their shipment date - or add or remove items to their regular shipments without too much stress (either on their part or mine).

I've generally looked at Paypal's recurring billing as more suited to software based subscriptions and I don't think this is the API I need. I'd like to just bill the customer via a billing agreement and then initiate the shipment.

The way Skype does it seems to be ideal - they establish a billing agreement (shown in my PayPal account under 'My account > Profile > Pay List' but I cannot seem to find that in the SOAP API document.

What is the API I need to create a billing agreement that I can trigger whenever I want. Can this be done with Express Checkout API ?

Answer 1

The API you are looking for is called reference transactions. This allows you to set up a billing agreement with a customer, get back a token, and then use that token to issue charges in the future. It can be done via the Express Checkout API.

You have to contact PayPal customer support to get this activated for your account before you can use it.