If you do take payments online, this is for you. Especially if you sell any kind of subscription plan, and you accept payments through VISA. By not complying, you risk losing any client disputes in case something goes wrong. The good news is, there is nothing complicated. Probably your merchant will help you with the most part.

In order to be more transparent to customers, VISA announced new rules for online sellers. These rules specifically apply to sellers that have free trials and/or introductory prices.

Free Trails

This is when you offer a product or access to your product or service for free. But the free offer is for a limited time. So, like you may offer a Free trial for your customers to test a platform or training for 1 week. Then after a week, you start billing them a set amount weekly.

Introductory Prices

This is when you let new users to start using your product or service at a reduced price for a specific time then renewals are at normal prices. For example, You have a $20/month ongoing course, but you let new learners pay $5 for the first month, then bill them $20 after the first month.

Only in the above scenarios do the rules apply. This means if buyers are paying the actual price from the start, they'll notice no change.

And the New VISA Rules are…

1: Your buyers will see a checkbox on the checkout page.This checkbox will ask them to acknowledge that they are aware that the price now is only for the first payment and will increast to a specific amount in the next billing.

2: Your receipt should have additional information about the future subscription payments. Additionally, there should be a clear information about how they can cancel their subscription.

It should be clear and easy for them to cancel. Otherwise, you'll lose any disputes if they happen. This is very important and this is where your input is needed the most.

3: As a seller, you will recieve a notification email informing you of the buyers consent. This information is to help you incase you have buyer disputes in the future.

Most merchants should be able to help you with the most. If you have any questions, contact your payment processor.

Conclusion

These rules went live on April 18th, 2020. So, it is important that you take this seriously. Check your checkout pages for recurring payments and make sure they comply. If they don't contact your merchant to look in to it.

This article was originally posted in Yukusite