Changing the Subscription Policy

Heisenberg.

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aidan_walsh

What do you suggest as an alternative? They used to accept mail in payment in the past, but stopped this as it was far too cumbersome (IIRC).

AlmightyCushion

You could use 3v or a wirecard.

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

Dades

Or "favours".

That's how I pay for... I mean...

Goodbye.

Sherifu

Western Union. I sold my house and this guy Prince Naseem and he gave me more than I asked for!!! The moneys in my account already! Happy days.

/serious reply

Paypal or similar is great for the admins cause there's no legwork involved. It's all automatic unless something gets b0rked. I dunno if they want to switch back to manual activations but if they did what about bank transfers, fairly easy to do online now.

Pherekydes

The Scientist wrote: »

Is there any plans to change the boards subscription policy away from Paypal only?

You could offer to 'slop out' for 6 months.

OrlaBarry

It might be worth investigating https://www.neteller.com/ or http://www.moneybookers.com/app/ so that the tournie organisers on the Tounament poker board have to be subscribers before using the board to trade their wares.

I'd like to see them have to pay the yearly sub's to use the board. To be honest I think most of them would and that way boards would get a small cut. Sure Ecksor could whack out that bit of code in a heart beat

Faith

The Scientist wrote: »

I'm sure Mr. Breslin is savvy enough to find a method that accepts Laser cards

You can use debit cards with Paypal, I did it yesterday. It was Maestro though, not laser. Don't know if that makes a difference.

Necronomicon

On a related note I've been meaning to ask, can you add a 3V card to your PayPal account and subscribe that way?

Sure can.

Ruu_Old

Get a mate to subscribe for you and pay them if you've no Paypal. You can add a 3V card through Paypal now anyway. Instructions are here. The subscription goes through right away after that, very handy. Problem solved.

6th

To subscribe for someone else you have to log into their account here, right?

I'd gladly sub anyone that wants it but I can understand the reluctance if the above is true.

Heisenberg.

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6th

Send me a postal order, bank draft, do a bank transfer, favours ... there are so many options.

Mr Magnolia

6th wrote:

Send me a postal order, bank draft, do a bank transfer, favours ... there are so many options.

My accountant appears to have sent you €4000 euro too much by mistake, can you please send me the surplus back via Western Union?

You could be inviting hassle on yourself 6th.

Dord

favours you say?

I have a subscription anyways. I used to use 3v for it. I had 5euro left on it before so I got a months sub. That followed on and when I got a credit card I subbed for a year. Been doin it for a while now. I think more people need to subscribe.

6th

Mr Magnolia wrote: »

You could be inviting hassle on yourself 6th.

Obviously I'd only do it for users with a bit of history.

Joe Robot wrote: »

I think more people need to subscribe.

So true.

seamus

No doubt there has been a stupidly long list of things that the admins wanted for this site, but until they had someone on board full-time, just wasn't feasible. Cult is no doubt working on said list and since they now have an office of sorts, it may be possible to reopen cheque/draft subscriptions at some point.

Implementing your own payment gateway to allow laser cards (for example) is fraught with problems and you need to be taking in a shedload of money to make it worth your while. Paypal overcomes this problem because they provide you with the gateway and the security for a small fee.

Cuddlesworth

seamus wrote: »

for a small fee.

and your soul........

Not subscribing to boards because you don't have a credit card is just lazy. You could easily do what you do every other time you need to get something online, use somebody else's or get a 3v card.

The only reasons I have not done it is a stubborn dis-inclination to part ways with my mula and I can't be arsed. The temptation of Sex and Sexuality is strong though.

Sherifu

krazy_8s wrote: »

The temptation of Sex and Sexuality is strong though.

It's so perverted in there

Heisenberg.

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Ron DMC

Faith wrote: »

You can use debit cards with Paypal, I did it yesterday. It was Maestro though, not laser. Don't know if that makes a difference.

Paypal takes maestro?

/me goes to look into this.

6th

The Scientist wrote: »

@6th cheers but i think i'll get a 3V yokeamebob. I dont want any mysterious Threads coming from my account appearing in PI....!

Its the PMs that I'd send that would really worry you!

seamus

The Scientist wrote: »

Ah come on, all thats needed is a variation of those machines you see in your local Spar everyday.

What, the physical machines that you put your card into? What's needed is a gateway provided by the bank/merchant whereby the customer initiates a secure third-party connection to them using information (cost, description, etc) provided by boards.ie, then charges the customer and passes this information back to boards.ie.

This requires a custom development on the part of boards.ie to allow vBulletin to send information to the gateway securely, receive a callback with information and then process that callback and convert it into a successful subscription.

Sites like PayPal and Worldpay provide this "gateway" functionality and do it relatively cheaply. This is because they process a fairly large number of requests and so can afford to charge a little less. Because they're so well known, the interconnectivity is already builtin into vBulletin and is well tested.

Irish banks don't provide this cheaply. The machine that a shop has installed belongs to the bank and the shop pays a yearly fee for the privilege and also pays a fee per transaction.
I would imagine that an online gateway to an Irish bank would cost something in the region of €thousands/year to subscribe to, have a ridiculously long and painful testing/authorising process and would also cost a hell of a lot more per transaction than Paypal.

As I say, I can see a opening here for allowing cheque, draft and possibly bank transfer subscriptions, but laser I very much doubt. For the tiny amount of people who only have a laser card and nothing else, the expense and hassle (in terms of Cult's time) wouldn't be worth it IMO. Especially when a viable alternative such as 3v is available.

Heisenberg.

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Cuddlesworth

The Scientist wrote: »

This goes against all my morals but i've just registered anyway because there are no other options.

Thats your problem, get rid of them and the coke/hookers of the boards world will start to flow.

seamus

It's a bit of a contradicting statement. Scientists don't have morals. That's why they think they have the right to question God.

Necronomicon

Whoot I didn't think 3v could be used with PayPal, must pick up a voucher later.

kaizersoze

The Scientist wrote: »

From 3v.ie
"• There is a fee of €5.00 for every 3V Voucher purchased. There will be a €2.50 feed applied for the redemption of any remaining balance"

This goes against all my morals but i've just registered anyway because there are no other options.

If you had a normal credit card you'd get charged €40 a year even if you don't use it. There's a cost involved with everything.

Heisenberg.

This post has been deleted.

TimTim

seamus wrote: »

I would imagine that an online gateway to an Irish bank would cost something in the region of €thousands/year to subscribe to, have a ridiculously long and painful testing/authorising process and would also cost a hell of a lot more per transaction than Paypal.

I've done research into this before for other reasons.

Merchant account -> Minimum of 30 quid a month in transactions
(They also may look for a 6k-12k security deposit first)

Gateway -> Realex -> Can't remember their prices off the top of my head but maybe around 30-40 quid a month for 100 transactions

Development time for vBulletin to Realex gateway -> No idea.

The only reason you'd be wanting to do this is because you can get a lower transaction fee by using a merchant account, but you want to be processing a hell of a lot transactions to make up the difference. If an admin wants to drop me a PM to see what rates I was offered then shoot.