Free trial at $0.00 then full amount later charging the full amount

Discussion in 'Troubleshooting' started by alleycorp, Dec 18, 2015.

  1. alleycorp

    alleycorp Member

    Joined:
    Jan 7, 2014
    Messages:
    34
    We're trying to set up a free trial to a product for some of our current users who have active subscriptions to a different product. Specifically the billing plan is:

    $0.00 for the first 6 months then second rebill until cancellation at $99 every 3 months.

    What should happen is the person signs up for the free trial, he should show a billing of $0 now, then at renewal in 6 months there should be a billing for $99.

    What's actually happening is the person signs up for the free trial, he is immediately billed the $99 and has the next renewal date at 6 months out at $99.

    I've tried this a couple of times with different test accounts and get the same result.

    Then I tried testing a billing plan with $1.00 for the first six months then second rebill until cancellation at $99 every 3 months. That one worked correctly. The test account was correctly billed at $1.00 the first time.

    Does aMember not support free trials? Am I setting the plan incorrectly? I've attached a screen shot with the two plans showing. We're using version 4.3.6.

    Any help would be greatly appreciated.
    Capture_2015_12_18_11_50_30_96.jpg
  2. alleycorp

    alleycorp Member

    Joined:
    Jan 7, 2014
    Messages:
    34
    UPDATE: we found out from our credit card processor that doing $0.00 authorizations is not allowed due to fraud issues.

    So, any suggestions on how we can do a free trial for X term since just putting in $0.00 for the first price in aMember won't work?
  3. jenolan

    jenolan aMember Coder

    Joined:
    Nov 3, 2006
    Messages:
    510
    PayPal allows a zero amount as the first payment with recurring, the problem is that most other processors do not allow a first payment of nothing. Not aMember at fault here.

    What you can do is setup the 'free' trial as product 'A' for the month, set it so that there can only ever be one occurrence, to stop freebie forever. Then add product 'B' which requires product 'A' and has the recurring payment.

    Downside is that they have to put the payment details into 'B' as 'A' is free, upside you say first month FREE NO STRINGS rather than making them commit to pay at the end of the month unless they remember to cancel which I have found can cause quite some resentment. You can then email them during the free period with a coupon to get the subscription cheaper if they do it before the end of the month which might make conversions more appealing.
  4. alleycorp

    alleycorp Member

    Joined:
    Jan 7, 2014
    Messages:
    34
    Thanks jenolan. I was able to confirm with our payment processor that it is indeed the case that we cannot do $0 charges. We decided to go with a $1 trial, seemed to work just as well.

Share This Page