ARB for $0

[seruslapha]

Is it possible to submit an ARB request with a 0-dollar amount?  In my particular case, I need to submit the ARB but do not want the customer to be billed right away.  I'll explain my situation:

1.  customer creates a product online

2.  product design is submitted to the system for approval

2a. ARB is sent to Authorize.NET

3.  product design is either approved or denied

3a.  if approved, the customer's ARB would go into effect

3b.  if denied, the customer's ARB would be cancelled

I don't want to store the credit card information in our system, so as not to subject ourselves to PCI compliance.  Therefore, I do not have the ability to send the initial ARB request when the design is approved, since I haven't stored the customer's payment information.  I only have the payment information when they initially created the design.

Is it possible to submit an ARB request in a pending status, so that the customer won't be billed until I give the go-ahead?  If not, is the 0-dollar amount possible?

Your help is greatly appreciated!

[seruslapha]

Is it possible to submit an ARB request with a 0-dollar amount?  In my particular case, I need to submit the ARB but do not want the customer to be billed right away.  I'll explain my situation:

1.  customer creates a product online

2.  product design is submitted to the system for approval

2a. ARB is sent to Authorize.NET

3.  product design is either approved or denied

3a.  if approved, the customer's ARB would go into effect

3b.  if denied, the customer's ARB would be cancelled

I don't want to store the credit card information in our system, so as not to subject ourselves to PCI compliance.  Therefore, I do not have the ability to send the initial ARB request when the design is approved, since I haven't stored the customer's payment information.  I only have the payment information when they initially created the design.

Is it possible to submit an ARB request in a pending status, so that the customer won't be billed until I give the go-ahead?  If not, is the 0-dollar amount possible?

Your help is greatly appreciated!

[TJPride]

The documentation says this:

The subscription start date (subscription.paymentSchedule.startDate) may only be updated if no successful payments have been completed.

So you could theoretically set the start date to some point in the future, then update the subscription to the correct date once you find out what it is. Alternately, you can charge them $0.00 or $0.01 via AIM to verify their card (this is generally a good idea, since otherwise you won't find out until the first ARB charge...), then use your control panel to create an ARB subscription from that transaction. It's not something you can do programmatically, but as long as you don't have a huge volume of subscriptions, it's manageable by hand.