SIM and Recurring Billing

[susan]

Hi,

We have a client who wants to integrate a payment system to allow customers to purchase their application.

We have decided to use Authorize.net API for development. Can anyone advise as to which is the best suited integration method.

Our criteria are:

1. We do not want to store any Credit card information on our server, even though it is a secure site.

2. We want to do recurring billing for customers (variable amounts)

As of now, we are thinking of using SIM, however we are facing a brick wall when it comes to automated recurring billing. Any help is appreciated. :)

Thanks,

Susan

[stymiee]

You can't use SIM to do recurring biling. To do recurring billing you will need to use CIM and your own scheduing engine. Since the amounts will vary you can't use ARB since that only allows for fixed amounts. So you'll need to use CIM to create customer accounts and then you will charge your scheduled variable payments using those stored accounts.

[susan]

Hi John,

Thank you for your quick response.

The reason why we plan to use SIM is that we do not want to collect and store Credit card info on our servers. If we use CIM, will we have to collect and store Credit card info on our end?

Is it possible... just asking.. that we can use SIM and then setup recurring payment manually by converting an existing transaction record to a recurring one? Or is there any other way to convert a transaction to a recurring one?

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Susan

[stymiee]

If you don't want to accept credit cards through your website then you won't be able to use CIM as you'll need to have the credit card information to create the payment profiles. However, you do not need to store any credit card nformation as that is what CIM is for. It stores the credit card information for you so you don't have to worry about the security measures necessary to do it.

But there is noy way to use CIM with SIM. SIM is for very basic transactions only. If you want to do anything more then that you will need to use the other Authnet APIs.

[susan]

Hi John,

Is it possible to manually make a settled transaction as recurring?

Thanks,

Susan

[stymiee · Accepted solution]

Yes. Find the transaction in your control panel and there you will find a link that says, "Create ARB Subscription from Transaction" click on that to manually create a subscription.

[susan]

Thank you for your prompt and apt response. :smileyhappy:

[ham]

"To do recurring billing you will need to use CIM..."

I understand that this a direct response to the OP. I'd like to know if this is always the case if you have different requirements? I guess my question is if you want ARB will you also need CIM?

[stymiee]

In general, ARB and CIM will not be used together although it certainly it possible in certain scenarios.

[roninsoft75]

John,

Can we call the CIM API to change credit card and other billing information? We want to do exactly what is described above, but the users are able to update their card info on our secure site. We don't want to store card info, but rather display it and allow for updates via the api...