look into paypal micropayments

[chadwhitacre]

Via HN.

[chadwhitacre]

I did look into this at one point, didn't record the exact reason why it didn't work, sorry. I believe it was because everyone needed a PayPal account and we lost anonymity? Donors could see who was donating to them.

[dangrossman]

If you have donors pay you, then you pay the recipients with Mass Pay, then only you know who is donating money.

[chadwhitacre]

I'd like someone with PayPal experience to champion this and/or #63 ("pay with paypal"). I'm not comfortable enough with them to trust that we're not going to get totally burned. With Balanced and Dwolla we have the companies themselves providing integration so the trust level is as high as can be.

[dangrossman]

I don't trust any payment processor. The risk thresholds upon which they close your account are all the same, as they come down from the root -- Visa and MasterCard's Operating Regulations -- one way or another. A resilient service using 3rd party processors will integrate with more than one -- so that you may enjoy the benefits each offers (such as PayPal's low micropayment fees, and the 50+ countries they support none of your other processors will support, including those where people do not normally have access to credit cards), while you're not affected if the account is closed -- your users will just have to click one of the other buttons to add money to their account.

That strategy is predicated upon allowing people to pre-deposit funds and hold a balance on GitTip, though. And your not using PayPal as a bank; you would want to either enable daily sweeps to your bank account, or manually withdraw money to your bank account regularly.

For an example, check out http://www.humblebundle.com/. As you see at the bottom of the page, customers can choose between a selection of payment providers, allowing account re-use and allowing HumbleBundle to be resilient against unexpected issues with any of their accounts.

[TheHippo]

Paypal is essentially for many people living outside the US. I'm from Germany where no one (except a few exceptions) has a credit card, so it would be great to get an alternative for donating money.

[abnor]

Fees too high, company doesn't like 'heterogeneous' payment processors. Plus complete transparency with a third party is scary.

#63

[TheHippo]

Then no gittip for the most europeans. ;-)

I think it would be fine if you let your customer pay the additional Paypal fees. Still a better a solution then no possibility to give some money.

[abnor]

Paypal offers Their Own Credit Card Correct?

[dangrossman]

PayPal is not a Visa or MasterCard member bank. It offers both credit and debit cards, but that is only through partnerships with other banks that actually issue the cards. They are not available worldwide; withdrawal to a credit or debit card is available in less than half of the countries the PayPal service operates in.

[abnor]

Ah, Shucks. I Doubt We Could please every single Country as It Is With our International Conquest Though. Might consider keeping The option Open.

[chadwhitacre]

@TheHippo Please see #126 for the non-U.S. payout situation.