Subscription Based Billing

Question

Hello All,

I'm putting together a small start up company which will be set up with a subscription based billing model. The bill will go to customers on either a monthly or quarterly basis depending on the end user's preference. My question is two parted:

1. I'm new to online billing and I'm only really aware of Pay Pal when it comes to third party bill payment, but this seems more like a check out system. I'm sure there are better alternatives than PayPal for third party billing processors (I have tried Googling for them, but I'm having trouble finding exactly what I'm looking for). What options (companies) are available for third party payment processing and what types of experiences (good or bad) have you had with them?

2. We would like to give our customers the ability to set up recurring payments. I'd rather not store a customer's credit card number on our database as I imagine there are a plethora of compliance guidelines around this. Is there a third party solution for recurring payment processing?

On a side note, this is not necessarily a code related question and is more business focused. I wasn't sure if there was a better route for posting this question, and please commont or modify this if there is another route I should take.

Thanks!!

Answer 1

You can also look into Amazon Flexible Payment System. I implemented this for a customer and the API, at least, was very easy to work with, and Amazon seems solid and trustworthy as near as I have been able to tell.

Answer 2

Take a look at http://chargify.com/

Answer 3

Hello,

Another option you should consider is Bill to Phone. ILD provides a Bill to Phone service for its merchant-customers that allows them to offer customers the option of charging products and services directly to their phone bill, without having to disclose credit card information or open an account with the merchant by sharing other personal information online.

Please visit our website http://ildcorp.com/index.html to learn more about our services. If you would like to become a merchant partner you can contact ILD Payments sales at (888) 453- 2666 or read more about becoming a merchant partner on our website.

Thank you and good luck on your new business!

Answer 4

You should also check out http://recurly.com