Best practice for first payment

[rugged spear]

Hello,

I have a question about the first payment.

We don't know upfront, which payment method our customers will use, so to provide them with all active methods, I need to make the first payment with an amount of 0.01 €.

After they paid and I get the confirmation and the mandate I need for further recurring payments, I'd like to refund the 0.01 € of the first payment, but this would cost us 0.25 € refund fee as far as I know, so not really an option.

Is there a better way to get a mandate without limiting the payment methods upfront? Even if I would know it, I still have to charge 0.01 € for bank methods which I would have to refund somehow.

Thanks.

[ebon roost]

You could create the mandate on/with the first real payment. So instead of 0,01 you charge your monthly fee.

Second option is to not refund the 0,01 but subtract it from the first recurring payment.

[rugged spear]

Thanks, both seem valid options in some cases. I'm not sure yet, if they will fit our requirements.
We would really like to have the consent (mandate) before charging thousands of Euro, the second option might lead to some tax considerations and the need of separate invoices. We will have to ask our tax consultant for this.

[ebon roost]

Yeah, I don't know your exact use case here, so 🙂

But if you're charging them 'thousands of Euro' I think taking the 25cents as expense on your side doesn't make the difference.

Btw: You're not obliged to charge 0,01 cent for a mandate. This can also be €1 or €10 for that matter.

There is a third option: the mandate endpoint. Where you can create your own mandate. But you need to make sure you get the permission yourself and document it.