Following feedback from our customers, we are pleased to announce we are trialing a new card payment processor on our website. This will benefit those purchasing, renewing, or upgrading a MIDAS room booking & resource scheduling software using a Credit/Debit card. It will allow these customers to complete their purchase without having to go through PayPal.

Whilst PayPal is arguably the largest and most popular card payment processor on the Internet, one of the concerns some of our customers have is that in order to complete a card payment via PayPal they are forced to sign up for a PayPal account. Many do not want to do this.

PayPal advertises that customers can make card payments without also requiring a PayPal account. In some cases this is certainly true. However, it’s not true in all cases!

For example, after you’ve used PayPal for a number of “one off” card payments without a PayPal account, PayPal then insist you create an account to continue making card payments through their system:

“You will only be able to use PayPal … for up to [10] transactions before we will require you to open a PayPal account … to enable further use of the PayPal system. At that point you will be required to enter into our standard user agreement to govern the ongoing relationship with PayPal”

Additionally, the country you’re in can also affect whether PayPal will allow you to make a card payment without a PayPal account, or insist you create one first.

On a PayPal payment page, if your country is set to United Kingdom, you might see:

PayPal card payment without requiring a PayPal account
PayPal card payment without requiring a PayPal account

…Whereas change your location to Canada, and you’ll see:

PayPal card payment requiring a PayPal account first
PayPal card payment requiring a PayPal account first

…spot the difference?! Yes, the option to pay directly by card directly has been replaced with an option to create a PayPal account!

We want to make things simpler for all our customers who just want to pay by Credit/Debit card without signing up for any 3rd party accounts!

Introducing Stripe

Stripe.comSo whilst PayPal remains a payment method option for our customers, we’ve now also integrated Stripe into our secure site.

Stripe securely handles card payments directly from our website. So unlike PayPal, you’re not transferred back and forth between a hosted payment page on another site and then back to our site. You can complete your card purchase securely and directly from our website. Plus, you won’t need to sign up for a Stripe account to make your payment either!

We will be trialing Stripe for a number of weeks, and we’d appreciate your feedback!

We’ve also updated our site’s Privacy Policy accordingly.