hello. i am considering offering a trial period and after that ends they would then submit credit card information. has anyone tried this? good or bad?

Can get confusing.
Why not offer 30 day money back and that would be like a 30 day trial.

I think it depends on your billing system - are you a CC merchant, can you process orders "manually", etc?

I think the issue is getting the credit card info "after" the trial period expires - that, I agree, could get confusing and time consuming. What about collecting the info at the outset, but only process the order in a delayed manner, after the trial period expires?

I know third party biller Revecom just introduced a similar system, but don't know whether it works

regards,
Antonio

It may make you an attractive target for malicious users, because they won't need to bother stealing real credit card info to get an account with you...

I think a money back guarantee would be better, then you can ensure that they have a valid credit card before they receive an account.

I think its a cool idea, this 30 day money back thing a lot of hosts have remind me of that buy 12 cds for a penny thing. you know, they send you cds and its up to you to send them back if you dont want them. this lets us try you out, with out the worry of trying to get our money back if you turn out to be a fruad host.

as far as collecting the cc info at the end, if the person likes you as a host I don't think that will be a prob, if they don't like you, isnt that the point? to let them try it with out any comitting to it? like going to a new ciropractor for your first free visit.

Thank you
Jason Miller:homer:

I will not suggest to offer free trial period without taking credit card details. You may be number one target for the "Spammers" and may be "hackers". Trust me your service will be abused and do more harm then good.

I will sugest you to take the credit card details and start billing them only after the end of the trial period and confirmation.

All the best :)

If your not with a 3rd party CC processor, you cant ake their CC details, and run an Auth-Only check. If it checks out, you charge them when trial is over. Same thing as a 30 day trial, without any refunds involved.

you guys are assuming everyone is a bad person. I like this idea, becouse it is trusting, and it take the hassel and worrie off emailing and saying hay I dont like it, I want my money back, or hey I don't like it don't bill my card. personaly I don't trust anyone who says its free, but I need your CC information.

they use the web space for a month, and then you email them, if they like it and respond you get there card info and don't cancel them, If they either don't like it or, don't reply, simply cancel them and be on your way to the other customers. maybe you could compramisea bit, offer a 2 weeks CC free trial, then if they like it, and sign up offer the month money back thing.

thank you
Jason Miller:homer:

you guys are assuming everyone is a bad person....

Not exactly, what I am trying to say is that if any one allows free hosting service with our taking credit card details, I agree he/she will get several sincere clients and he will also get more than thousand spammers.

See if you are sincere enough what is the problem in giving the card details before, anyway you have to give it after one month... this will filter all the crap customers. He will get less but sincere customers and therefore will be able to server them better and make them happy so they will stick with him/her.

personaly I don't trust anyone who says its free, but I need your CC information.

You don't trust them then why they should trust you... don't take it personally; I am just trying to make logic. See if the web hosting is not trust worthy why will you give your credit card even after 1 month. If they want they can charge you any amount after getting your credit card details one month later.

Personally, I will never make this mistake.

Originally posted by Ihoppoet
you guys are assuming everyone is a bad person. I like this idea, becouse it is trusting, and it take the hassel and worrie off emailing and saying hay I dont like it, I want my money back, or hey I don't like it don't bill my card. personaly I don't trust anyone who says its free, but I need your CC information.

they use the web space for a month, and then you email them, if they like it and respond you get there card info and don't cancel them, If they either don't like it or, don't reply, simply cancel them and be on your way to the other customers. maybe you could compramisea bit, offer a 2 weeks CC free trial, then if they like it, and sign up offer the month money back thing.
:laugh:
Your heart's in the right place, but you've obviously never sold services (intangibles) over the Internet.

So far the best suggestion was to collect the billing information, authorize the credit card for one month's charges (plus do all the other fraud-checking stuff you should be doing), but don't actually charge the card.

I think it is a good idea. I received a free trial from one company and I decided to continue with them even if their offer is not the best one.

Is it too difficult to make a difference between serious and non-serious people ? It is up to you to decide however.

I am actually searching for companies able to offer free trial periods on reseller accounts. I have found one or two, and I am actually testing one of them. Definitely if the service is OK I will stay with them.

My idea is that if a company is not able to offer free trial they cannot fulfill with what thay are offering (i.e. 99,5% uptime instead of the very popular 99,9%, delayed customer support and so on...) and I cannot trust somebody if I am not considered a serious client, that's all.

Just a thought but if your trial customers are anything like a few of my design clients then you are likely to end up with a few who genuinely forget to send you the info or can't be bothered, etc...

So, when you shut their account down for non payment it all gets pear shaped...

Just an info: Revecom now supports trial periods where the customer enters his cc info now but he is charged the first time after a certain time (eg. 1 month).
Never used it myself, just wanted to share the info.

To your customers it would certainly be nice, as Jason says. However, it could also open you up to malicious attacks, either spamming or hacking, as has been pointed out.

Like many things in business, it's a balancing act. There's a certain amount of information you need to collect from clients to have sufficient security yourself. At the same time, I can see that customers would be more willing to go with you if they could sustain some amount of anonymity.

At the very least, I think you should be very cautious offering a free trial period without credit card details. To offer a free trial but still collect card details seems a little against the point - I think the biggest problem customers have is giving their card details full stop, whether they are charged instantly or in a month.

I guess it also depends on what sort of accounts you are offering as to how much you would open yourself up to malicious attacks.