Tsukiyomi Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 Hi. I'm just looking for someone to point me in the right direction, I know it would be completely unfeasible, lazy and selfish to ask for a complete and perfect solution to be offered by anyone here. I've built a site that manages vendors for a wedding, along with allowing brides and grooms to create their own little sites to show off their wedding pics and other things. For the vendors you have to pay a small monthly fee, like $4. Thats paid once a month. They are also capable of buying premiums which will allow them extra features or extra space to upload images or music. The brides and grooms initially get everything free but can pay for premium features or more space. So basically the amount each person is charged each month can be completely different. We had a bad experience with outsourcing our billing system to another company, so this time want to do it in house. So I need to know where I can find information about how to create a recurring billing system that meets these requirements. Or even better a pre-made piece of software we can buy to serve this function (though I would definitely enjoy the challenge of building one). My main questions are this and I would greatly appreciate any answers. 1.) I heard it is now illegal to store credit card information on your database. Is this true? Is there anyway around this (like minimum security requirements to store that kind of sensitive information). If not where am I able to store this? 2.) What is required to actually process the payment and send that information through? 3.) How do I get information sent back to my system that lets me know whether or not the payment has gone through so I can activate or deactivate features or accounts? Any help would be appreciated be it simply a tip, a link to an article or a program recommendation. Thank you for your time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken2k7 Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 1. Why do you have to "store" credit card numbers? 2. Can you be more specific as to where the information is going to be sent to? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsukiyomi Posted January 8, 2008 Author Share Posted January 8, 2008 1. Why do you have to "store" credit card numbers? 2. Can you be more specific as to where the information is going to be sent to? If its possible to achieve these tasks without storing credit card info I'm totally fine with that as well, I just need it to work. All I need is for it to be able to once a month charge people however much money they owe depending on what kind of account and what features they have signed up for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken2k7 Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 Well you can set up in the database with dates. Then check the date to the current date or time. If the due date is approaching within 'x' number days, show a warning or something. Then once the due date is reached, give an error message that has the form where they submit information and payment so they can't do anything unless they re-paid for the service. Either that or just demote premium to regular. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsukiyomi Posted January 8, 2008 Author Share Posted January 8, 2008 Wait so they would have to manually keep coming in and paying and again? I'm trying to make something where the payments will take place automatically unless they delete their account or cancel their premium features. That way a vendor or bride could have their listing without having to worry about it every month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken2k7 Posted January 8, 2008 Share Posted January 8, 2008 Well aren't they using your service? They'll have to go there anyways right? And it's the safest way. Just have an option for the premium members to renew their service or to cancel their service. As for regular members, give them the option to upgrade. That's it. And this helps to inform them that they are being billed that much. If you make it automatic, people can slowly forget about that payment and it can be troublesome. Just my two cents. Feel free to disagree. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsukiyomi Posted January 9, 2008 Author Share Posted January 9, 2008 Well aren't they using your service? They'll have to go there anyways right? And it's the safest way. Just have an option for the premium members to renew their service or to cancel their service. As for regular members, give them the option to upgrade. That's it. And this helps to inform them that they are being billed that much. If you make it automatic, people can slowly forget about that payment and it can be troublesome. Just my two cents. Feel free to disagree. I don't see the issue in them forgetting. If I was a vendor and wanting a listing on a site I don't want to have to log in once a month to maintain it, I just want it to be there. I would rather they forget about it and still have the listing then forget to come back and we lose their business. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken2k7 Posted January 9, 2008 Share Posted January 9, 2008 Then set it to once a year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsukiyomi Posted January 9, 2008 Author Share Posted January 9, 2008 That would make it even less likely they would remember to come back. And less likely that they'll want to sign up. I think someone contemplating $4 a month is more likely to say yes then someone contemplating $48 a year. Even though they are the same overall the numbers when you are actually looking to spend them seem less threatening with $4 a month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nikefido Posted January 9, 2008 Share Posted January 9, 2008 First off, call someone who knows for SURE what the current law is on storing CC's. Then if you can, develop a system that does. It needs to have tight security! Another option to get around storing CC numbers is to have people store their checking acct number and bank routing number and charge them that way. This might be a good question to ask on the oscommerce forums! - while it's not osCommerce specific, it is very related and you will probably get a good answer (mostly, don't store numbers!) http://forums.oscommerce.com/ Ask people how they handle recurring costs (if any do...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kratsg Posted January 9, 2008 Share Posted January 9, 2008 I'm kind of wondering... PayPal seems to be one of the best websites for questions like this. Not only do they allow you to use them as a means of transactions, but they have developer forums in which you're able to develop your own payment system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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