Reference transaction with Recurring PayPal payment profiles - php

I want to modify my billing cycle of recurring payment with a different amount before the next billing cycle starts, and I was suggested that I should use reference transaction for that. But as we know recurring payment profile call does not respond with transaction id then how is it possible to make a reference transaction ?
Please help me with this subject.
Thank You,

If you're working with a recurring payments profile created via Payments Pro or Express Checkout then you'll need to update it using UpdateRecurringPaymentsProfile. You could also do it manually via the PayPal account.
If the profile was setup using a credit card there aren't any limitations to updating the amount. Unfortunately, if the profile was setup using a PayPal account you can only increase the amount by 20% every 180 days.
That's probably why reference transactions were recommended. Using reference transactions you can build your own recurring payments system and avoid this limitation.

Related

Is zero amount transaction possible with paypal methods?

Is it possible to do transaction with zero amount in paypal methods like express checkout or standard? I want to do auto payments in paypal express or standard methods. In which is it possible I call request and It will make auto transaction from customer paypal account like it did in Paypal recurring method. I do not want to use paypal recurring method because I am managing my own payment schedules and do not want to use its default recurring system.
I am using autorize.net CIM method also. which is working fine right now and I am calling payment request and its doing payment. I also want to do zero amount transaction in that case.
can any one help on this point?
NO,
You need to bypass to zero value.
Means Just do all thing proper except real payment. i.e. order entry, shipping etc. just in it your transaction id is not available.
It sounds like you want to be able to charge the buyer later down the road, instead of charging them immediately -- is that right?
If so, then you need to use Billing Agreements and Reference Transactions. See https://developer.paypal.com/webapps/developer/docs/classic/express-checkout/integration-guide/ECReferenceTxns/ for more information.
Note that you will need to get approval from PayPal before you can start creating billing agreements.

Proper way to create dynamic automatic billing method with paypal API?

I know this maybe a duplicate but due to the overwhelming amount of paypal APIs I am having a hard time finding a GOOD answer to my question.
I need to create variable monthly billing per user in PHP. The idea is that a user could sell a number of items with a total sum of sales at the end of the month p. So the billing would be something of the extent MY_PERCENTAGE_FEE * p. The user would then be sent an invoice, and a would be automatically billed via paypal for that amount.
Now, it would be SUPER great if this could be done by creating reoccurring billing and updating the amount at the end of the month. Is that possible? If not what would be the next best way to go?
If you're creating recurring profiles with Payments Pro you can adjust those without any limits. Unfortunately, with Express Checkout you're limited to raising the amount by only 20% every 180 days, so that doesn't normally work out very well. You have a few options of how to get around that.
1) Utilize billing agreements with Express Checkout and Reference Transactions. This would allow you to run an authorization (or an original sale of some sort) for a payer and then from that point on you can use that transaction ID from the original transaction along with a new amount in the DoReferenceTransaction API. Reference Transactions area available with Payments Pro by default, but if you want to use them with Express Checkout you'll need to get that specifically enabled on your account.
2) Use the Preapproval API, which is part of the Adaptive Payments platform. This is similar to reference transactions except that you can create preapproved rules by which you can bill your payers at any time without further approval. This would allow you to process payments for them at any time you need to and pull variable amounts accordingly.
3) Use the Pay API, which is also part of Adaptive Payments, with a split payment (parallel or chained) which would allow you to take your cut in real-time without the need to track balances and submit variable recurring payments. Each time one of your customers is paid for their product/service, you would immediately be paid your share.

Suggest recurring payment method for paypal

We have specific requirement list for recurring payment method which are as follow:
After registration process user can select plan for recurring payment which is like 7$/month.
While registering user can enter coupon code and if he/she choose recurring plan then user will get discount on first month only and rest of the month he has to pay decided amount (7$/month) for recurring.
User can cancel his/her recurring plan and switch to free account.
User's account (premium/free) is depend on the received payment. So i have to check that user's payment is received and if not then i have to update my database and make user as free user.
There is a scenario that user signed up with recurring payment method after some month he switched to free account. Now again he wants to sign up with recurring plan. how can i achieve above scenario.
I know there are two options (subscription and recurring payment) but i am confuse which is suitable for this scenario. If there is another solution available then please suggest it.
PayPal doesn't have a coupon code feature so that is something you would need to handle on your own.
You can set up a trial period for a Recurring Profile that lasts a month and would be charged at the lower rate. After that trial period the Recurring Profile would start billing the normal amount of $7.
A buyer will always be able to change their Recurring Profiles within PayPal. You can't have a Recurring Profile open with PayPal for free. We require that a positive amount is provided. You can still track the users on your own but there wouldn't be an active Profile for them within PayPal you can check.
An existing Recurring Profile can be updated but the amount charged cannot be changed more than 20%.
Either a Subscription button through Payments Standard or Recurring Payment API's through Express Checkout will allow you to do this. Express Checkout Recurring Payments can be handled entirely through API calls.

PayPal checkout solution confusion

I am trying to figure out exactly what payment solution to use for my site.
I would like to do the same thing as Spotify (https://www.spotify.com/us/freetrial/ - You'll need to login to see it), allowing users to choose whether they want to pay with PayPal or use a credit card and then taking them to a payment selection screen (on PayPal), then returning them to my site to click confirm and buy.
I am already paying for recurring payments (even though I've yet to use it) and am unsure if that is applicable here. I have also integrated express checkout but I don't know if it will allow recurring payments.
EDIT: Do I need a separate token for recurring payments? Do I have to use the old recurring payments checkout screen? How can this be done as efficiently as possible, like Spotify? Here are my efforts to create a recurring payments profile after express checkout: http://pastie.org/private/sakzopltnwfv93wwmduqq
Diagram:
Select Buy & PayPal (subscription) --> Choose Payment (on PayPal) --> confirm & pay (my site)
This is what spotify's checkout looks like (It wouldn't say update for first time users):
Are they using recurring payments + express checkout? I would really appreciate some help with this.
Yes, you can get this done with Express Checkout + Recurring Payments. That said, if the person chooses credit card when setting up a recurring payment they will have to create a PayPal account. If they're paying a non-recurring checkout then they could use the credit card option without creating a PayPal account.
You mentioned that you're already paying for recurring payments..?? Are you referring to Payments Pro? If so, you don't need to pay for that to use EC + RP. Pro is only necessary if you want to process credit cards directly on your site without ever redirecting to PayPal. This can sometimes make things seem a little more professional and would also give you the ability to let people setup recurring payments without creating a PayPal account when using a credit card.
When using EC you just need to make sure to include the billing agreement parameters in order to get a token back that will work within CreateRecurringPaymentsProfile. Refer to the SetExpressCheckout API reference for more details on that.
This is kind of old now, but is still useful. Take a look at this sample express checkout set of api calls. You'll notice it uses the same token throughout all of the calls.
Just like Spotify -you would need to build that option on your site. If the user chooses to subscribe with a credit card - use the recurring payments w/ direct credit card (see below). If the user chooses to subscribe with a PayPal account - use the recurring payments w/ PayPal Account (this is what Andrew is suggesting above in his response).
Here are the how-to guides:
For direct credit card subscriptions: https://www.x.com/developers/paypal/documentation-tools/paypal-payments-pro/how-set-recurring-payments-profile-using-direct-payment
For PayPal Account subscriptions: https://www.x.com/developers/paypal/documentation-tools/express-checkout/how-to/ht_ec-recurringPaymentProfile-curl-etc
The APIs would allow you to do things like trial periods, setup fee, etc. For example here is a how to on building a freemium kind of model: https://www.x.com/developers/paypal/documentation-tools/express-checkout/how-to/ht_ec-freeTrialRecurringPayments-curl-etc

Using Paypal API's to process conditional rental payments using PHP

I am building an eCommerce site which gives a user the ability to rent
an item for a designated amount of time. If the item is not returned
within that time, the customer is billed automatically for another rent
cycle. If the item is returned the customer will stop getting billed
for additional rent cycles. If the item is bought the customer will be
billed and an additional amount different from the rent price will be
billed to the customer and the customer will no longer be billed for
additional rent. Most of the billing is ongoing and has too many
variables going on to just have a simple subscription payment method.
I think the sequence of transactions can be initiated with a simple PayPal button form which sends information about my IPN script location, Cancel Payment script location and recurring payment script location.
I find that there are some limitations of what PayPal's API's can do. It seems that the recurring payments API is set up for an amount of set payments set over a specified billing period over a set number of times a customer would be billed. I am not 100% sure on this but I think PayPal only accesses the recurring payment API for a customer once for the initial transaction and executes the continuous transactions without checking my websites internal database which might give data to influence parts of the recurring payment script to cancel continuous payments. An example of when this condition should occur is when a customer returns a product or purchases a product which was already being rented out. PayPal has been terrible at getting back to me about technical problems like this. Another problem with PayPal's recurring payments API is a recurring payment subscription cannot be longer than a year so if a customer is renting an item for 2 years then they would only be charged for the first year.
Any advice on how I can implement a payment system like this using PayPal, if it is even possible would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to have make my own payment gateway if PayPal can do this.

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