PreApproved Payments

Hi, i am using PayPal PreApproved payments for my crowd funding website, where where project backers are only charged if the project is successfully backed (similar to kickstarter)

I am worried that a high rate of payments will fail when the PayPal API tries to collect the funds when a project is successful:

- a backer might not have any funds in their PayPal account
- a backer might close their account once the project is succssful (to intentionally stop payment)
- a backer might remove / cancel their preapproved payment
- etc...

There are a number of ways that the payment could fail which would mean that the project owner would not get the funds.

Can anyone suggest a way of tightening or securing preapproved payments?

Please note, that PayPal will only allow you to use PreApproved payments for a crowdfunding website.

Please also note that project owners need to be able to receive the funds from my site. Sometimes, these funds can be as small as $10 or up to $10,000 so we need to use PayPal to pay them as there is no other automated way of getting the funds to the project owner

There's nothing that you can do to stop users from changing account details, or doing what you've described. That's just how it works. People can and do change their mind, even after a few seconds, and when they do that you can't force them to pay anything.

If you're really that concerned about it the best way to do it is to take the payment right at the start, and then refund it after a certain time if the project doesn't go ahead. If it does go ahead you can transfer the money to the project then.

Hi, thanks for your reply... PayPal do not allow you to collect the money at the start in a crowd funding application. You must use pre approved payments

Then you have to run the risk that some of them will not be completed at the end of the time. PayPal is really the place that you should be talking to about this. It's their system, so they can tell you how it works and what they can do about your concerns a whole lot better then anyone hare can.

Ok cool, thanks...