Howdy, Stranger!

It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!


Prepaid vs. Postpaid
New on LowEndTalk? Please Register and read our Community Rules.

All new Registrations are manually reviewed and approved, so a short delay after registration may occur before your account becomes active.

Prepaid vs. Postpaid

What type of payment system do you use - prepaid or postpaid? Which is better?

Comments

  • yaochengyaocheng Member
    edited March 2014

    You, as an commercial billing system provider, should know the answer better than I do :-)

  • Postpaid doesn't really work with customers over the internet. It could be usable only with local customers who come to your office and sign a contract.

  • yaocheng said: You, as an commercial billing system provider, should know the answer better than I do :-)

    I would prefer prepaid. But a lot of providers would opt for postpaid, with their own reasons. However, I'm interested to know which one LEB providers would go for.

  • ztecztec Member

    If you got a good collection agency behind you I believe postpaid will get you more profit. Of course there are a lot more factors to take in account.

  • VDS6VDS6 Member

    Postpaid for low end services over the internet would be an insane idea. Any service where you can not sign an actual contract with a customer would be prepaid.
    But on the other hand it can be post paid if passport, ID + current utility bill is provided upon sign up. This way if client rejects future payments you can transfer his debts to collectors.

  • Prepaid. I pay cash - i get service. Some services are postpaid only and i don't like that.

  • marcmmarcm Member

    @mywisp telecommunications providers, cable providers, and so on do it like that (postpaid). They tie you to their services with a contract, and they get your SSN and all other info and make you sign it. If you sign up over the Internet or over the phone then a click or recorded phone conversation qualifies as your signature. If you can find customers in the web hosting world who are willing to do that and give you so much personal information then you can safely do postpaid. Otherwise the customer has little to no obligation to pay and you won't be able to collect. I know that piece of shit companies like 1and1 (yes, I've said it) employ the services of a in house collection agency that they claim is not co-owned by them (or fully owned), however they are bordering on the illegal, or even breaking the law in order to squeeze money from their customers. Beats me how they're still getting away with it after all these years. Anyway, best of luck :-)

  • tchentchen Member

    @marcm said:

    My AWS and Dreamhost accounts are postpaid, and I'm sure I didn't give them my SSN nor sign any onerous contract. They do however have my credit card on file. There's also a few in-placed limits to prevent the damage spammer fraud signups do which require human contact and a history of actual payments. Basically, postpaid is doable with appropriate fraud controls. The nice psychological bonus of having customers spend more to probably cancels out the minor fraud they do absorb.

    Thanked by 1marcm
  • marcmmarcm Member

    It's easier for bigger companies to implement postpaid systems that work effectively. I'm pretty sure that they monitor several things when you sign up and then when you use their services. Unusual patterns will stand out pretty quickly. For the typical LEB provider it is not that easy. However you do make an excellent point, thank you :-)

Sign In or Register to comment.