In order to create greater transparency for customers, Visa has just announced new rules for free trials and introductory pricing that is part of an ongoing subscription service.
Visa now requires that customers give express consent before you start them on a trial subscription that leads into a recurring payment plan. But only if it’s a free trial or an introductory price that is lower than the recurring charges that follow. They also require you to give the customer better information in transaction receipts and to make it easier for them to cancel their trial or subscription. You can read all the details here.
Some of the payment solutions we offer at JVZoo have already implemented these changes on their end. This includes PayPal.
But if you are selling subscription offers with a trial, using either Stripe or your own merchant account, you and your customers will experience the following changes:
- They will see a checkbox on the checkout page asking them to acknowledge that they are aware the first payment is less and that it will increase to whatever recurring billing you charge
- The receipt we email to them will have additional information on the trial, future subscription payments and on how they can easily cancel it.
- As the vendor you will also receive a notification when someone checks the box on the checkout page, agreeing to the trial and subscription. This information will help you to more easily fight any disputes.
However please note that in order to stay fully compliant with Visa, the merchants must provide an easy online way to cancel the trial with NO hoops to jump through. They will lose any disputes that arise if they skip this step.