I want to start charging my registered users a subscription fee (on a monthly basis). I searched threads here and found out that i typically have to establish a merchant account and then also get billing gateway service (several companies have been recommended: charge.com, verisign, cybercash etc).

I absolutely dont want to store CC numbers on my server (for security reasons). My users should go to an external secure page where they enter their CC info and then they're forwarded back to my server -- however, I want to know their user name etc when they're returned to my server so i can keep track real time if they've made a payment or not. I know Verisign PayLink service can do sth like this through their control panel.
Has anyone had any experience with PayPal? they have sth called "business account" (seems quite cheap) but I am not sure if their service can do the above (i.e. go back to my server after the payment and return basic user info). Any other recommendations?

-mikula

I use Revecom, they offer recurring billing and your customers are taken off site to their site to fill out the form. After approved they are forwared to a URL of your choice. Check out http://www.revecom.com

Regards,

Mike

I have written an entire billing, automated sign-up, confirmation, and invoice system for webhost manager and verisign payflow link.

PayFlow Link posts all the results of the transaction to a form that you specify, without the user having to get forwarded. This way, even if the customer leaves the page without going to the confirmation, you still get the information that it was either denied or accepted.

If you are interested in that script, let me know, I wrote it to be easily changed to someone else's brand name/passwords/etc.


Andrew

Andrew, your program sounds intriguing but I'm wondering if it would require a person, to have their own Merchant account?

Andrew,

I'm interested. Can you drop me an e-mail to jkehe@plusweb.com?

Thanks.

Andrew,

Do you have a demo of this running anywhere that we might be able to take a look at? What is the cost?

Regards,
Brian P.