Pricing page

[matin]

URL: https://balancedpayments.com/pricing

Outline the pricing and fees for everything all in one place. There's no reason someone should have to look at the documentation for something like pricing.

[matthewfl]

isn't the idea that all the pricing is currently contained on the home page?

[dmdj03]

The pricing page will offer more comprehensive information than what currently exists on the homepage.

Common pricing questions:

Does Balanced offer volume discounts?
How much does Balanced cost?
How does Balanced invoice marketplaces for fees owed?
When are fees invoiced?
Does Balanced refund transaction fees for issuing refunds?
Is there a fee to credit the marketplace owner's bank account?
Is there a fee to fund the escrow from the marketplace owner's bank account?
When are funds available after charging a buyer’s credit card?
When are funds available in escrow after debiting the marketplace owner's bank account?
How do I collect my fees?
How do I set my fees?
How do I ensure funds from a debit are properly attributed to a corresponding credit in the same order?
Can I export transaction data?

---

Page structure:

PRICING AND FEES:

Pricing:
-Pricing table for Processing and Payouts including chargebacks
-Volume discount pricing
-When fees are invoiced and how

Collecting your fees:
-Fee scenarios

Example payments flow:
-Based on a 10% rental fee and 10% listing fee
-Diagram shows a sample marketplace fee structure and the flow of funds from buyer to seller
-Indicate funds are immediately available after a credit card debit
-Distinguish escrow account from marketplace owner’s bank account
-Indicate that debits are properly attributed to a corresponding credit by way of the order resource
-Indicate transaction data can be exported
-Indicate there are no fees to credit the owner’s bank account

[matin]

@jkwade @dmdj03 what is the purpose of using the phrase "Balanced Processing"? Why not simply say "Card Processing" or "Charging Cards" and "Direct Bank Payments" or "ACH Debits"?

[matin]

@dmdj03 are you suggesting putting both of these mocks on the same page, or are these mocks for two different pages?

[mahmoudimus]

I agree re: Balanced Processing and Balanced Payouts -- that language was also changed in the new documentation as I was going through it.

Also, @dmdj03, did you mean 2.9% + 30c per successful charge instead of the word "credit"

[mahmoudimus]

I think the balanced payouts section needs some more clarification

[dmdj03]

The Balanced Processing label is in the documentation and on the homepage. I think at the time, we were trying to brand our service offerings / give our product a name.

[nodesocket]

Is volume pricing listed per month? Should be explicit.

[matin]

@nodesocket great catch. Here's how Twillio does it:

[dmdj03]

[mjallday]

@dmdj03 interesting concept at the ember-auth docs http://ember-auth.herokuapp.com/docs that reminds me of this latest mock. You can edit the prose and it updates the sample code and scenario for you:

[dmdj03]

Separate page for payments flow

[dmdj03]

[dmdj03]

[rmanisha]

Comments based on my discussion with @matin and @jkwade

Card Processing:
Improve wording explaining what the pricing for "Hold" pricing is. As well as link to the Holds page
Change refund policy. We will now be refunding the 2.9% but not the 30¢. Remove footnote no. 2

ACH debits
Add Chargebacks pricing of $15 (Mirror Card processing pricing)
Change Failure pricing to $0 - (Mirror Card processing pricing)
Refund policy (add footnote) we will refund the 1% and not the 30¢ - (Mirror Card processing pricing)

ACH Credits
Change ACH credits title to "Payouts" since that's the way customers ID the product
Change failure pricing to $1

Volume Discount pricing
Change "Next 100K" to "Next $400k" for the 2.7% tier.
Add a fee calculator that asks for Monthly transaction volume and avg transaction size and returns Balanced Fees as well the effective rate. (the effective rate should say X.X% + 30¢)

[matin]

• cut Invoicing Fees and Setting Your Fees. Those belong on a different page
• no need for a footnote. The point is to explain things clearly and require as little reading as possible. The information should be visual instead of text
• refunds => the marketplace receives the variable part back. There has to be a simple way to communicate that

Holds

@dmdj03 @jkwade @rmanisha what about listing a price under card processing as "Hold Only" or something like that. The explanation of voids, expirations, etc. seems like a confusing way to express the information. It's pretty simple. If you only do a hold, it's 30¢. It doesn't matter if it's voided, etc.

[dmdj03]

[matin]

@dmdj03 in the right direction. Do you want to run it by some customers to see what they think?

/cc @rmanisha @jkwade

[matin]

ping @andrewnossiter

[dmdj03]

Sure

[jkwade]

@rmanisha or @rserna2010 should take it out to customers. Only thing that seems confusing is the hold vs. debit (capture) bit. And the waterfall approach seems to be negatively reacted to from my experience.

[outericky]

Agreed, that holds vs debit is a bit confusing... Otherwise it's pretty straightforward.

[matin]

@outericky what do you find confusing in particular about holds vs. debits?

[outericky]

@matin mainly - wasn't sure what it meant. Without knowing how payment processing works, I didn't understand the difference between 2.9/30 and 30/2.9... Maybe I'm an anomoly, but not being well versed in payments lingo made it vauge. The word "Holds" was confusing - as in, it wasn't immediately obvious about what it was, or why I'd need it.

[matin]

@outericky you're by no stretch an anomaly, and your feedback is really helpful.

To clarify then, you primarily find the concept of a hold/authorization confusing? In other words, it's less about the pricing as what a hold/authorization is in the first place. Do I have that right?

[outericky]

Pricing was fine (as in... the same), once I understood the different processes. Maybe the 30/+2.9 can be without the / .... because debit is 2.9 + 30, and holds are 30 to hold, then 2.9 to charge. Maybe Holds should be 2 boxes within the gray space. Hold .30. Capture. 2.9%. 2 actions. 2 fees.

[matin]

I think we've found a way to solve the pricing confusion. Balanced won't charge 30¢ if the authorization hold goes uncaptured (voided/expired).

In other words, charging a card will be 2.9% + 30¢. If you perform a hold and never capture, you don't pay anything.

Balanced incurs a cost for performing authorization holds, but the cost is not worth the customer confusion and additional support.

@dmdj03 that means the box for "Authorization Hold" will simply state $0

[mahmoudimus]

When is this effective? We have to update our metered billing code.

[jkwade]

@matin Won't this encourage abuse of the holds feature? As a developer, I could string together four 7 day holds while a month-long crowdfunding campaign is going on. Right now, I'd be disincentivized to do so since I'm charged 30¢ per hold, but with no fee for uncaptured holds, I'd just be charged 30¢ on my final hold (plus 2.9% for the debit).

[matin]

@jkwade the price change wouldn't "encourage" abuse. It will however make it possible. Nonetheless, I don't think that's reason enough to justify the pricing confusion across everyone.

If it becomes an issue, Balanced will have to figure out another way to handle it for those specific companies.

[dmdj03]

[matin]

@dmdj03 "Authorizations" => "Authorization Hold"

[nodesocket]

🔥 Nice job @dmdj03

[dmdj03]

[dmdj03]

"If I credit somebody for $100, I get charged 25c. If I revoke the credit, I get $100 back. Do I get 25c back too?"

Is this clear?

[matin]

@dmdj03 what do you mean by "revoke"? Reverse?

[dmdj03]

Yes, "reverse"

[slowpoison]

"If I credit somebody for $100, I get charged 25c. If I revoke the credit, I get $100 back. Do I get 25c back too?"

I believe this was from a question I asked support about. Yes, @matin revoke is reverse.

[matin]

@slowpoison You don't receive the 25¢ back. Did you find that to be ambiguous in the pricing page that Damon has mocked out?

[slowpoison]

I wrote that to support before I checked out the new pricing page.
I just checked out the page and it's clear.

A non-tangential question:
About the CC refunds, can you tell me WHEN was the policy change made where you refund 2.9% but don't refund the 30c back? What was the previous policy?

[matin]

@slowpoison @mahmoudimus the new pricing will go into effect on Wednesday, August 7.

The current policy is that nothing is returned on the refund. Balanced currently keeps the full 2.9% + 30¢. After Aug 7, Balanced will return the 2.9% to the marketplace.

[slowpoison]

Thanks for the clarification. A welcome change! :)

[dmdj03]

@nodesocket I adjusted the total width of the page: 1065 pixels.

24 columns

Column width: 30px
Gutter: 15px

[dmdj03]

[dmdj03]

[dmdj03]

[dmdj03]

Each block is 300 x 80 px

[dmdj03]

First 3 blocks are 225 x 225 px. The line pattern is 72x72 px.

[kleinsch]

@dmdj03 I need fonts for:

1. droid serif regular
2. droid serif italic
3. NimbusSanNovCon-Reg (we have NimbusSanNovCon-Med already, not sure if that's the same)

Not sure if you're the right person to ask about this, but if not, could you point me to who is? Thanks!

[dmdj03]

3. Reg should be Med. There's no Reg. I corrected the style page.