What Happens When Your Processor Bails?

[Lee]

Whilst this is perhaps one of the hardest challenges that a webmaster of a paysite can face in the industry it isn't as bad as they may seem at first after all, there are literally hundreds of processors to choose from ranging from credit card processors, dialer option, micro-sms billing and a wide range of other systems.

The first and foremost thing you should do however when confronted with this challenge is to try and contact your existing processor and find out what will happen to funds that you are owed, will you be paid (in most cases you will).

The next thing you should do is to evaluate your business billing methods are you offering multiple processors already? If so, simply switch to your backup processor and find a new processor to use as a backup.

However, what happens if you only have a single processor on your site what can you do then?

First things first, you need to make sure you choose a reliable payment processor to start off with companies such as CCBill, CCBill EU, Netbilling, Epoch and Jettis are all good processors used by a multitude of sponsors and content providers amongst the other companies.

You will most likely find that these companies are more than happy to work with you in the integration of their system onto your site.

Whilst you are awaiting your setup of your new processor to ensure you do not lose any sales it may be an idea to divert your join page off to a dialer or, perhaps have some form of 'internal' billing mechanism set up so that, when you do change over processors you can seamlessly transition your member base across.

Now, presuming that you already have an existing member base what do you do then? How easy or hard is it going to be to transfer them across to your new processor? Well based on the situation some were confronted with when Visa introduced the new fees to process adult payments this can vary from webmaster to webmaster again, as before, the easiest solution for you would be to contact the company you will be using as your primary processor and see what they can suggest.

Hopefully, you will have access to a database of your existing members email addresses this will also come in handy to ensure you can keep recurring those members. Send out an email stating that you will be changing your processor and, ask that, if they would like to remain a member of your site that they update their billing information, it might also be prudent to offer them some sort of recompense for having them change processors perhaps something along the lines of 2 weeks low cost or even free access tot he site, this is sure to mean that most of, if not all of your existing members will input their billing information again enabling you to rebill them until they cancel their membership at our new processor.

Of course nothing is infallible so the best advice i can offer you is to work closely with your new found processor and make sure that the transition period happens as quickly and, as smoothly as possible.

Hopefully this article will be of some use to those who do get affected by their processors going out of business and, will also serve as a warning to have multiple processors in place for those who have not or will not have the need to change your billing company.

Article written by Lee.

http://www.studmoney.com

[Lee]

Just copied this across from the Articles + Tutorials section on the off-chance that some of our community members may need the information contained within the article itself

Regards,

Lee

[Squirt]

I really hope this isn't a bad omen of another processor going under. I've lost a lot of $$$ in the past due to that after having my main processor stop billing for adult. Since then it takes FOREVER to get your own merchant account!

[Chilihost]

always always have a backup processor handy so that you can continue your business by quickly switching your join pages to the backup processor. IMHO this is the most important point in this industry.

its one thing to lose all your rebills but there is no possibility of surviving without the ability of swapping your processor for new signups, plus you would be surprised how many surfers will re-join your site if you write them a nice email explaining the situation.

cheers,
Luke

[Squirt]

You got that right Chilihost !

Losing 10% of your yearly income because of unreturned holdbacks is the real bitch! I wonder how many industries consider it standard for Mastercard and Visa credit card hold backs to not be returned to you.

It's a sad state of affairs mate.