Add PayPal (or iDeal) as payment options

[Rebel Mage]

Hi, I purchased the Humble Bundle, and I would love to buy the Beginner Box FoundryVTT code. One problem: There is no way for me to pay. The only options are credit cards, which I don't have. I've seen discussions about this topic before from a decade ago and it mentioned something about PayPal not working correctly with subscriptions or something, but I have subscriptions that I pay for with PayPal, so that seems to no longer be the case.

Before anyone comes in with suggesting using a debit card: That doesn't function the same way where I'm from. (Netherlands.) We have a different payment system, iDeal, and our cards can just be used to buy things physically.

EDIT: This'd also be a good decision, now that a lot more people are coming into Pathfinder, with the whole OGL/ORC situation. Making things more accessible for people to buy would only help with that. Currently, there's a barrier that other systems don't have, since other systems/publishers do allow PayPal (and/or iDeal).

[Rysky]

It wasn’t that PayPal didn’t work with subscriptions specifically, it was the time limit they set for authorization and shipping on purchases that wouldn’t work for Paizo to my understanding.

[Papa-DRB]

LINK to the reason Paypal won't work for Paizo. It's old, but I believe the reasoning still stands.

[Rebel Mage]

Papa-DRB wrote:

LINK to the reason Paypal won't work for Paizo. It's old, but I believe the reasoning still stands.

That is an unfortunate thing, though I've also used PayPal for pre-orders and the like, so that's a bit weird.

I feel there should be some way to allow people who don't have credit cards to buy stuff, even if it's only digital stuff. I want to support Paizo, but they clearly don't want me or people like me to.

[Papa-DRB]

This may not apply to your situation so take what I say with a grain of salt.

I very rarely pre-order something, and when I do it is from a place that I trust implicitly, as in almost all cases the money is spent immediately.

For instance, my wife and I go to this music venue 9 or 10 times over the summer, but I actually just purchased the 4th of July (US Independence Day) tickets last week. When the rest of the season goes on sale in 3 weeks, I will purchase the July / August tickets. This is a 5 - 6 month "pre-order" and the money shows up on my credit card as soon as the pre-order is made.

The difference with Paizo, is they do not charge till something is actually shipped (physical product) so the post by Vic comes into play, unlike many other places that take the money right away.

I could see making a case for when only currently available PDFs are being purchased, and perhaps the current team will do something.

-- david

[Rebel Mage]

Papa-DRB wrote:

This may not apply to your situation so take what I say with a grain of salt.

I very rarely pre-order something, and when I do it is from a place that I trust implicitly, as in almost all cases the money is spent immediately.

For instance, my wife and I go to this music venue 9 or 10 times over the summer, but I actually just purchased the 4th of July (US Independence Day) tickets last week. When the rest of the season goes on sale in 3 weeks, I will purchase the July / August tickets. This is a 5 - 6 month "pre-order" and the money shows up on my credit card as soon as the pre-order is made.

The difference with Paizo, is they do not charge till something is actually shipped (physical product) so the post by Vic comes into play, unlike many other places that take the money right away.

I could see making a case for when only currently available PDFs are being purchased, and perhaps the current team will do something.

-- david

I hope they'll do something, yes! That's also part of why I'm making a post; I've seen other people talking about it, and the explanations, but it's important to let the developers know that there are more people that want this.

[Fumarole]

Can you buy a Visa pre-paid card, or whatever the equivalent is in the Netherlands? You can add funds to it each month, so it is not just a one and done thing.

[Deredex]

I can only agree with the OPs' sentiment. I tried to buy some more books in pdf form after buying the humble bundle, but no dice.

With alot more people coming over being interested in Pathfinder, especially people from europe who are unlikely to have a credit card, alternative payment options like paypal would be advisable. Tried to look up prepaid credit cards, not a thing over here where I live, unless I make an account with the company and pay ~ € 2 euro per month just for having it.

I say this with the confidence of someone who has no idea about the subject, but implementing paypal in an online shop really cant be that hard these days.

[Redelia]

In the past, it wasn't that Paizo didn't choose to accept Paypal, it was that the PayPal terms of service forbade Paizo to use them. It was a matter of the subscriptions being unpredictable in amount, I believe.

[Rebel Mage]

Deredex wrote:

I say this with the confidence of someone who has no idea about the subject, but implementing paypal in an online shop really cant be that hard these days.

I mean, I suppose it depends on how they implemented their payment system? If the way they wrote it is completely incompatible with what PayPal offers, they'd have to do a bit of work, and they'd have to do a cost-benefit analysis. I'm a programmer but I don't have any experience in this field, but since it's about money and information associated with it, there's a lot more risk involved if there's a bug in the system or whatever, so that'd also increase the amount of effort that goes into it. (Higher risk = more testing = more effort.)

[Ponzis]

For the love of god do not roll your own payment transactions it is so buggy and not ACID at all.