Pro forms with Website Payments Standard

Hi all, my client has been declined a Paypal Pro account today (apparently because their business is brand new), Which is a huge pain. They wanted yearly recurring payments, which I presume they now can’t have?

Paypal have told them they can have Website Payments Standard.

Am I also right in thinking that the only way we can continue to use the Pro forms is via the “Buy now” options and with Paypal Express checkout?

They wanted to be able to take payment via credit card and from what I’ve read in the s2Member admin this is no longer going to be possible?

If someone could just clarify what the sign up process for members will now need to be it would be a great help.

Thanks :)

Hi, thanks for your inquiry!

Ah, yes. PayPal Pro can be quite difficult to be accepted into.

From the Docs:

*PayPal® Pro is NOT Absolutely Required* s2Member is very flexible. It is now possible to integrate Pro Forms without a PayPal® Pro account, whereby the enhanced Form Shortcodes that s2Member provides can be integrated ONLY with PayPal® Express Checkout. In other words, if you get declined for PayPal® Pro service, you can still use s2Member Pro Forms. Ask PayPal® to activate Express Checkout for you. ( it’s free ). Once Express Checkout is enabled, you will have access to your PayPal® API Credentials. Log into your PayPal® account, and navigate to Profile -> API Access (or Request API Credentials). You’ll choose ( Request API Signature ). Now … here is the tricky part; whenever you generate a Pro Form Shortcode with s2Member, be sure to change accept=”paypal,visa,mastercard,amex,discover,maestro,solo” to just accept=”paypal”; thereby excluding the on-site credit card processing functionality; which is available only with PayPal® Pro.

By following these instructions, you will simply have your visitors pushed off to PayPal and then brought back to your site, unlike with PayPal Pro, which would only require your customers to stay on your page.

I hope that answers your question,

-Bruce

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by  Bruce.

Hi Bruce, it was the bit beneath about Express checkout that confused me:

*PayPal® Express Checkout Limitations* If you decide NOT to acquire a PayPal® Pro account, and instead integrate ONLY with PayPal® Express Checkout, please understand the following limitation. PayPal® Express Checkout is intended to facilitate payments for PayPal® account owners and/or Customers willing to signup for PayPal® during checkout. It is NOT possible for a Customer to go through PayPal® Express Checkout without having and/or acquiring a PayPal® account, regardless of the transaction type ( i.e. Buy Now functionality is no exception to this rule ). This is because PayPal® Express Checkout is really intended for Customers that *prefer* to pay with PayPal®. So although it’s possible to integrate Pro Forms without a PayPal® Pro account, we recommend that you acquire a PayPal® Pro account, so that you can accept credit cards on-site, and then offer PayPal® Express Checkout to Customers that *prefer* to pay with PayPal®. That’s the way s2Member Pro Forms are designed to work, in an ideal fashion.

But they can still choose to pay by card beneath the login box when on the PayPal website?

Am I also correct in thinking they will not be able to use recurring subscriptions in anyway, but we will have to use the buy now options instead?

Thanks :)

Thanks for the follow up.

Ah, I understand now. You can still use recurring payments without PayPal Pro, however your customers will need to have/create a PayPal account to checkout, and you cannot accept credit cards without PayPal Pro.

I hope that makes sense,

-Bruce

So the customers will have to create a paypal account if we don’t have Pro, regardless of if we are using recurring or not?

Sorry to nit-pick but I need to understand this clearly before I get back to the client.

Thanks!!

Yup.

That’s right, they will have to have a PayPal account to check out.

-Bruce

Is there anyway members can make payment by credit card with a non-pro account? This is a really important feature to the client….

Zoe

Hi Zoe,

If you really need a solution for credit cards, I would suggest trying one of the other payment gateways s2Member offers. Unfortunately, credit card processing is only available with PayPal Pro, and there is no other way to accomplish it with PayPal.

Sorry for the inconvenience,

-Bruce

Hi Bruce, I’ve tested one of the buttons and when I get taken to PayPal there is infact a “Don’t have a PayPal account? Pay using your credit or debit card” button – so that solves that issue, as long as they can pay by card, it doesn’t really matter where they do it :)

My final question is about how to set up the buttons. I’ve disabled PayPal pro as a payment provider and set up a recurring button under s2Member > PayPal buttons, but when I put the shortcode in to my page I only get a button, no registration form… how does this work (sorry if I’m being a bit thick)?

Thanks again!

Hi Zoe,

If you look under the tab for PayPal® Buttons, you should see another tab for PayPal® Pro-Forms. This is where you need to set up your shortcodes.

-Bruce

Hi Bruce, this removed itself when I switched off Paypal pro as a payment provider! I’ll switch it back on if a standard account will still work!!

Ta!