Frequently Asked Questions
- What is Stripe?
- Stripe is Signup Forms preferred payment processor. "Stripe is the easiest way to accept credit and debit card payments online. With Stripe, you can create exactly the payment experience you want in your website or mobile app, and we handle everything from security to daily transfers to your bank account. You can get started immediately." - quoted from Stripe.com
- What types of payments can I accept with Stripe?
You can use Stripe to accept credit and debit card payments. The set of card brands you can accept depends on where you're located: United States businesses can accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, JCB, Discover, and Diners Club.
- When I charge a customer, what will they see on their card statements?
Whatever you choose! You'll set how your business name appears on statements when you activate your Stripe merchant account. This greatly reduces charge-backs, where people forget they have ordered/purchased something and when they see a strange name on their credit card bill, refuse payment. Now, people will see the name you choose and recognize their purchase.
- Can I issue a partial or full refund?
- Yes, You can provide a partial refund or a full refund. Go to the Registrants tab, start typing the name of the person whom you want to refund their money. Select the "Order No." on the right, scroll down and click "Edit Payment" - see image.Type in the amount that you want to refund (full refund is the default). Click “Issue Refund”. You can enter a comment regarding this refund in the “Comments” section and select “Update Comments”.All Signup Forms management fees are refunded. However, the credit card fees are not refunded by Stripe (our payment processor). For example, when issuing a full refund on a $100 order with a Stripe credit card fee of 2.9% + $.30 = $3.20, this $3.20 is not refunded to the organizer. Thus, a full refund in this example will "cost" the organizer $3.20.
- What is the administration cost for a free event?
- If the event is free, your total cost is $0, it's free! See our pricing page for other related pricing details.
- Can a registration allow for a partial down payment?
Yes. As an organizer, one can specify a ‘deposit’ amount. As a registrant, one can then choose to pay the full amount (default), or only pay the minimum amount. If one pays the minimum amount, the financial reports will indicate an “Amount Due” for that order. In addition, as a registrant, one can click on the link provided in my confirmation email and pay the remaining balance. See image for an example. The below shows a $40 deposit permitted on a $90 order.
- If a person mails in a registration form with their credit card info, can I enter the info into the website as if I am the person registering?
Yes, When they send you their credit card info, they are authorizing you to make a payment with it. But it’s always best for the customer to enter the credit card information securely online when they register. This ensures the best security for all parties and makes use of all the features signupforms has to save both the organizer and the registrant time.
- Is Signup Forms PCI compliant? Is my info safe and secure?
- Your information is safe and secure. In tech-speech...Stripe, our payment processor, has been audited by a PCI-certified auditor, and has in turn been certified as a PCI Level 1 Service Provider, the most stringent level of certification available. You can confirm our certification in Visa's registry of service providers. Stripe is also a participant in the PCI Security Standards Council. All of our payment processing is handled by Stripe. Signup Forms doesn’t actually receive, process, or store any credit card information. In addition, all data transmission between Signup Forms, Stripe, and customers is encrypted over SSL.
- What information does Stripe need to get payments to my bank account?
There is a slight variation of information depending on whether you are an Individual / Sole Propriotorship or a Corporation. The information for an Individual / Sole Propriotorship includes a couple questions on your products / services which you offer and your “business”
The “business” is loosely defined as you may have a one time event or activity where you put on a class and/or selling a product. If you have an ongoing business, select between “Corporation”, Non profit”, “Partnership” or “LLC”. “Your website” doesn’t need to be a website that you own the domain to. It can be a related site. For example, if you are collecting money from your softball team for league fees and t-shirts, you may enter your softball leagues website which your softball team plays on. The EIN is optional for the “Individual” category.
Next enter your name, date of birth and the last 4 digits of your SSN to verify your identity. The credit card information included is the information which you want to appear on a person’s credit card statement. To ensure that your customers recognize the charge, you should choose a name that customers most closely associate with you. This might not be your official corporate name or your website domain, but rather the product for which you are known may be a good choice. Also see faq_card_statements for related information.
Finally, enter your bank account information and Stripe account information. When you select “Authorize access to this account”, you’re done! and will be redirected back to signupforms.com.
- What is required to get pricing better than the standard Stripe pricing?
- Stripe’s rate of 2.9% +$0.30 is very competitive, but if you have high volumes, you may be able to get even better rates. Word from Stripe: "If you're generating >$50k / month in transaction volume, all we'd need are 2-3 months of credit card processing statements (including merchant banking, payment gateway and AmEx information) to provide you with a quick quote." Links: Stripe support, Contact Stripe
- Can I have an installment amount and multiple payments to go toward the total amount due?
- Yes, you can make an initial deposit and then make additional deposits at a later date. This can be accomplished by setting a deposit amount in the "Allow deposit" area of the Pricing section. The registrant will see (see image) in the Summary section a choice to "Pay full amount of $xx" or "Pay initial deposit of $xx"
- What is a merchant account? Why do I need a merchant account?
A merchant account is a type of bank account that allows businesses to accept payments by payment cards, typically debit or credit cards. With a merchant account you can now have funds go directly to your bank account (either your business or personal bank account). This means that neither Stripe* nor Sign Up Forms holds your money, but it goes to you! You don't need to request your funds to be transfered to your account, just watch it flow in on a daily basis.
*Stripe does hold your funds for 7 days before they are released on a daily basis to your account.
- Why do I have to use Stripe / pay a fee to collect money with Signup Forms?
- With any credit card transactions there is a processing fee. When you swipe your card at a store the store incurs a fee and they pass that onto the customer by increasing the price of their products. The same is true when your customer uses their credit card to register for your event, the credit card company charges a fee. Stripe works with the credit card companies to negotiate the best rates, to make sure cards being used are valid, and to take care of all the behind the scenes work so you can safely, securely, and easily collect payments for your event.
- Why is there no cost under "Received" for my registration?
If there is a discrepancy between the Registration cost and the Received cost, it may be because an expense was entered manually. With Sign Up Forms, one can enter a payment in manually (from the back-end) which will count as a Registration cost but not as a Received cost.
- How do I monitor the activity happening with my Stripe account?
You can monitor transactions and payments into your bank account by logging into your Stripe account at stripe.com. You will need the email you used and the password you created when you set up your Stripe account.
- How can I have the option to receive Cash, Check and Credit Card for my event?
The best way to do this is to have one ticket and to set the ticket item to have a $0 deposit. Then, a person can pay part or all of their ticket with credit card at time of purchase, and pay the remaining amount before the event with credit card or at the event with cash or check. To enable this, select the edit icon for the pricing option. Set "Allow Deposit" to $0.
An alternative is to setup two ticket items: one with a charge and one as "Free" and in the description state that the "Free" ticket means that you register for free but need to pay at the door with check or cash. Conversely, if you select the paid registration, then you not only registered but also pre-paid with credit card.
- Why are there differences in processing fees when a registration is setup as a Ticket compared to Merchandise?
The fees for using a credit card are in 2 parts: 1) The credit card fees (2.9%+$.30) 2) Signup Forms processing fees which are $1 + 1% per ticket, but, merchandise has only a 1% fee (not the $1).
If you setup your entire registration as Merchandise, one can avoid this $1 fee but some of the functionality is lost as well. Signup Forms is designed to have a Ticket for each person registering and Merchandise for any item desired at the time of registration.
- How do I prompt my registrants to pay their remaining balance?
- Allowing registrants to put down a deposit when registering for the event is a helpful way to break up the cost of tickets. To send a reminder to those that need to pay the rest of their balance head to the 'Registrants' tab and click 'Email'.
When writing your email mark the to category as 'Confirmation emails of orders with an outstanding balance' and be sure to click 'Include copy of receipt with message' below the message. With these two options marked, you can write your email and a link to pay the remaining balance will be sent to your registrants. - I have more questions. What should I do?
We know these pages don’t cover it all, and we’re eager to help answer your questions. Please contact us.