[QCWA Hotlist] PayPal "Recurring Payments"

[Ken Simpson, W8EK]

Chapter Officers:  Please pass this information along to all of your 
members.  Thanks.


Hello Everyone,

I would like to take this opportunity to talk about what PayPal calls 
"recurring payments".  Some of us might call these "automatic 
payments".  This is where you could set up a payment to automatically 
come out of your PayPal account at a certain time.  For most, this 
meant a yearly dues payment to QCWA, possibly every two years or every 
three years, if you were making two or three year dues payments.

We thought that this would be a good opportunity for our members, so 
that they would not need to remember to pay their dues. Unfortunately 
it has not worked out that way. Very few members have taken advantage 
of it, and there have been problems with it for those that did.  Just 
FYI, there have been problems with about 90% of these.

What has typically happened is that the member has forgotten that they 
had the automatic payment scheduled, so they pay their dues in the 
normal manner.  Then PayPal also debits the members PayPal account, 
and QCWA gets paid twice.  Of course we then need to refund the extra 
payment.  All of this takes multiple e-mails.

In addition, many (maybe most) times, the credit card that is attached 
to the account has expired, and PayPal does not have current 
information.  Again, a problem.

Because of this, QCWA is discontinuing the recurring payment option. 
It has been removed from our web site, so that no one can add it.  For 
those that have previously scheduled payments, they have been 
cancelled.  PayPal says that they will send a notice (with 
explanation) to those that we cancel.  Hopefully they will do as they say.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Thanks, 73,

Ken, W8EK

Ken Simpson, W8EK
QCWA Director and Executive Administrator
E-Mail to ExecAdmin at qcwa.org
QCWA Phone (352) 425-1097