Free Trials and Card-Required vs Not Offering a free trial is a proven way to win subscribers, but one decision shapes everything: do you ask for a card up front or not? Each approach attracts a different kind of user. This article...

Taxes, VAT and Invoicing Charging the right tax on each sale is a legal obligation, and the rules vary by what you sell and where your customer is. Automating this saves time and reduces the risk of getting it wrong. This article g...

Currency Conversion Fees Whenever money crosses currencies, someone charges a margin for the conversion. When you sell internationally, these fees can quietly erode your margins if you do not account for them. This article explains...

Compliance: GDPR and Payment Data Payment data is personal data, so it falls under data-protection law as well as PCI security rules. Handling it correctly keeps you on the right side of both. This article explains where GDPR and p...

Handling Partial and Split Payments Sometimes a single order needs to be paid in more than one piece — a deposit now and the balance later, or a payment shared across two cards. These are partial and split payments. This article ex...

Refunds, Chargebacks and Disputes Refunds, chargebacks and disputes are three different ways money can flow back to a customer, and they have very different costs and consequences for your business. Knowing the difference helps you...

Proration When Plans Change When a customer changes plan part-way through a billing cycle, they should not pay twice or get charged unfairly. Proration is how billing systems calculate the right adjustment. This article ex...

Cart Recovery for Abandoned Payments Most online shoppers add items to a basket and then leave without paying. Cart recovery is the practice of bringing those customers back to finish what they started, and it can recover meaningful reven...

Testing Payments Safely with Sandboxes You never want to test payments with real money. Every serious provider offers a sandbox — a complete copy of their system that behaves like the real thing but moves no money. This ar...

Payout Schedules and Cash Flow A sale is not cash in the bank until your provider pays it out. Understanding payout schedules is essential for managing cash flow, especially in the early days of a business. This article explains ho...

Subscription Pause and Cancel Flows How you handle a customer who wants to leave says a lot about your business. A thoughtful pause-or-cancel flow can retain revenue without trapping anyone or damaging goodwill. This article explai...

Payment Reconciliation Reconciliation is the unglamorous but vital task of making sure the money in your bank matches the sales in your records. Done well, it catches errors early and keeps your accounts honest. This article explai...

Reducing Involuntary Churn Not all cancellations are deliberate. Involuntary churn is when customers want to keep paying but their payment fails and is never recovered. It is some of the easiest revenue to win back. This a...

Handling Disputes and Evidence Submission When a customer disputes a charge with their bank, you usually get a chance to respond with evidence. How well you do this determines whether you keep the money or lose it along with a fee. ...

How Online Payments Work Behind the Scenes When a customer taps Pay now, it feels instant, but several parties exchange messages in under a second to move money from their account to yours. Knowing the rough shape of that...

Failed Payments and Dunning Some subscription payments will fail — cards expire, funds run short, banks decline. How you respond to those failures has a direct, measurable effect on your revenue. Dunning is the process of ...

Apple Pay and Google Pay Digital wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay let customers pay with a fingerprint, face or PIN instead of typing card details. They are now one of the easiest ways to lift mobile conversion. This articl...

Marketplace Payments and Split Payouts If your platform connects buyers with multiple sellers, you face a harder payments problem: taking one payment and paying out to several parties, while keeping your commission and staying compliant....

Direct Debit and ACH Explained Cards are not the only way to take recurring payments. Bank-based methods such as Direct Debit in the UK and ACH in the US pull money straight from a customer's account, often at much lower cost. This...

Webhooks for Payment Events Payments do not always finish in the moment a customer clicks the button. Webhooks are how your provider tells your system what happened, even minutes or days later. This article explain...

Generating Invoices and Receipts Every payment should leave a clear paper trail. Invoices and receipts are not just courtesies — they are records your customers and your accountant rely on. This article explains the difference and ...

Securing the Checkout Page The checkout is the most sensitive page on your site and the most attractive target for attackers. Securing it protects both your customers and your reputation. This article explains the key protections w...

Fraud Prevention and Risk Scoring Online payments attract fraud, and every fraudulent transaction costs you the goods, the chargeback fee and staff time. Modern providers use risk scoring to block the worst before it reaches you. T...

Multi-Currency and International Payments Selling across borders means deciding how to handle currencies, local payment methods and the costs of converting money. Getting it right makes you feel local to overseas customers. This ar...

PCI DSS Compliance Explained PCI DSS is the security standard that everyone handling card data must follow. It sounds intimidating, but for most of our clients the practical burden is small because of how we design checkout. This a...

Idempotency in Payment Processing One of the worst outcomes in payments is charging a customer twice. Idempotency is the technique that guarantees a repeated request has no extra effect, and it is essential to safe billing. ...

Upgrades, Downgrades and Add-Ons A healthy subscription business grows revenue from existing customers, not just new ones. Smooth upgrades, downgrades and add-ons let customers adjust their spend as their needs change. This article...

Choosing a Payment Provider The provider you pick shapes your fees, your checkout experience and how much engineering effort your team spends. It is worth a considered decision rather than defaulting to the first name you recognise. ...

Why We Never Store Card Numbers A question we often hear is whether we keep customer card numbers on file so payments are convenient. The deliberate answer is no, and that choice protects both you and your customers. Here we explai...

Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) and 3-D Secure If your customers are sometimes asked to confirm a payment in their banking app, that is Strong Customer Authentication at work. It is a European requirement designed to cut fraud on onl...

Payment Gateways vs Merchant Accounts Two phrases come up constantly when you start taking card payments: the gateway and the merchant account. They are often bundled together by modern providers, which m...

Setting Up Recurring Subscriptions Recurring billing turns one-off customers into predictable, repeating revenue. Setting it up well from the start saves a great deal of pain later, because billing logic is hard to retrofit. This a...

Metered and Usage-Based Billing Not every product fits a flat monthly fee. Usage-based billing charges customers for what they actually consume — API calls, storage, messages sent — which can feel fairer and scale with value. This ...

Coupons, Discounts and Promo Codes Discounts are a powerful lever for winning and keeping customers, but poorly managed codes leak revenue and cause support headaches. A bit of structure makes them safe and effective. This article ...

Buy Now, Pay Later Integrations Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services let customers split a purchase into instalments while you receive the full amount up front. They can lift average order value, but they are not right for every business....

Migrating Subscriptions to a New Provider Switching payment providers when you already have active subscribers is one of the most delicate jobs in payments. Done carelessly, it interrupts billing and loses customers; done well, nobody not...

Subscription Metrics: MRR, Churn and LTV Subscription businesses live and die by a handful of metrics. If you can read MRR, churn and lifetime value, you can see the health of your business at a glance. This article defines the ess...

Tokenisation and Card Vaulting Tokenisation is the mechanism that lets you offer saved cards and subscriptions without ever holding card numbers. It is worth understanding because it underpins almost everything else in this group. ...

Saved Cards and One-Click Checkout The fastest checkout is the one the customer barely notices. Saved cards and one-click checkout remove friction for returning customers and can lift repeat-purchase rates significantly. This artic...

Choosing Between Stripe, PayPal and Others Stripe and PayPal are the names most clients recognise, but they suit different needs, and other providers can be a better fit again. The right choice depends on your model and your customers....