Payment Processors

Setting up payment processors

* Warning * Payment processors such as Paypal have strict rules regarding what it can be used for. Accounts have been frozen when the rules have not been followed. Some reports in the press incorrectly used the word "autosurf" when describing a particular scam and the same is adopted by the SEC and Paypal. If your site mentioned this word it's possible Paypal would freeze your account. When writing the text for your site avoid using autosurf, investment or other similar words. Check the terms and conditions of your payment processor to make sure your site complies with their rules.

A payment processor such as Paypal and Alertpay will handle payments made by your customers and automatically update their accounts with their purchase. You can use any payment processor and manually update their account using the easy upgrader (BCP --> Membership Options --> Easy Upgrader).

Setup Paypal

There are two tasks to perform, first login to Paypal and make sure IPN is enabled, then add your Paypal business email address to your profile. Note that you must have either a Premier or Business account to use the IPN facility. If you have a personal account you can upgrade to Premier free of charge (at time of writing).

lets start by setting up Paypal IPN, to do that follow these steps:

Login to your PayPal account.
Select the 'Profile' tab
Select 'Instant Payment Notification' under the 'Selling Preferences' section
Enter http://yourdomain.com/paypal_ipn.php in the IPN URL field
Switch IPN on

NB. If you already have IPN switched on for another website then you have nothing more to do. Each time this website sends a payment it also sends instructions to Paypal for handling this transaction separately.

Now lets add your Paypal email address to the BCP, to do that follow these steps:

Login to your BCP and select Configuration from the System Tools menu
Then Financial Configuration from the General Configuration area.
Enter your Paypal email address under Paypal Settings

Setup Alertpay

Select sell online Alertpay uses a similar method of IPN to Paypal with the addition of an Encrypted Security Code. Here's the process for setting up Alertpay:

If you don't have an AlertPay account click here to create one (they're free).
Login to your Alertpay account and select Sell online
Select Business Accounts and then Edit for the account you wish to use or follow the instructions to enable IPN.
Enable the IPN and make a note of the Encrypted Security Code which will look similar to this: o+/mEt1wsn9PWk5bIKxtwx
Add your IPN alert link in the "Enter alert URL:" field which should be http://yourdomain.com/alertpay_ipn.php

Now return to your BCP to complete the setup:

Then Financial Configuration from the General Configuration area.

Enter your Alertpay email address under Alertpay Settings

Enter the Alertpay Encrypted Secret Code

* Note * There have been reports where the Encrypted Secret Code will not work correctly if it includes a + sign. For example if yours is o+/mEt1wsn9PWk5bIKxtwx it may not work if you just paste it in. To fix this problem replace the + with a single space so it looks like this: o /mEt1wsn9PWk5bIKxtwx

To further complicate the issue we know that sometimes this will work either way! The best thing to do is try it as provided top you by Alertpay and if that fails do the replacement and try again. See the section on testing your payment processors below.

Testing your payment processor setup

Whether Paypal or Alertpay there really is only one true way to test end to end to ensure they work correctly. Find someone with another account and ask them to signup and make a payment. They can cancel the subscription and you can refund the payment when the test is complete and this will not incur any charges.

Adding Any Payment Method

There is support for making payments by any payment method using the Easy Upgrader, click here for more information on this topic.

Click here to return to the Basic Configuration

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