
Ask HN: Ask for credit card before or after free trial? - tworats
Say you have a web based service with a 30 day free trial and subsequent monthly subscription charge. Is it better to ask for the credit card information at the start of the free trial when the user first signs up, or to wait until after the free trial when the user is ready to buy?<p>I could see arguments for either way, so I'm planning on testing both, but I wanted to see what people's experience with this has been.
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jrallison
If you want to delight your potential customers, ask for it after the free
trial. It's a way to garner instant respect and trust. They're most likely
used to being asked for their credit card up front and having bad experiences
(or scared of having a bad experience).

I'd definitely be more willing to try and eventually spend money on a product
where the company understands the spirit of a "free trial".

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ndl
If I were signing up for said free trial and saw a credit card request
upfront, I would be suspicious. Many subscription services promise such a
"free" trial and then make it difficult to back out. It also violates my model
of how "free" should work to ask for credit card info, so I suspect hidden
charges.

That's my experience. Maybe your users are more trusting.

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il
What's to stop people from signing up for several free trials in a row if you
don't authenticate them via a credit card? If you want to see any money from
your web service, get the credit card before, but make it very easy to
cancel(i.e. a simple form on your site).

~~~
joshuacc
Depending on the product, persistence of data may be enough to stop them.

For example, I'm not going to move all the data from one Backpack/Basecamp
account to another just to continue a free trial.

~~~
tworats
Agreed, I'm not too worried about people signing up for trails multiple times.
The service becomes more useful with more usage, so multiple signups is
probably not an issue.

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drewbuschhorn
I think this would make an excellent poll question for someone with the karma.

That being said, dupe: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=836167>

I think it depends ( and I guess the split here backs me up ):

1\. I'm fine giving a credit card number up-front if it's for 'serious
business', i.e. something that would make money, reduce my workload, etc.

2\. I'm not fine giving a credit card number up-front if it's a whim or a
'huh, that might be useful'-level of interest.

Without knowing what you are selling, it's hard to say where your example
falls on 'my' spectrum.

One thing to consider is from a support resources point of view, do you want
lookie-loos ( who you might convert ) but who will cost you x support time
from paying customers, or do you want to prioritize your resources to paying
only customers. Remember, you don't know when you're providing a free trial
user support for 2 hours on their first day, if they'll be customers tomorrow
... if they've handed over a CC number you know they're at least somewhat
serious in their interest.

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iuguy
Before is more likely to put potential subscribers off, but would keep people
that have no interest in keeping the service from using resources.

After is potentially more likely to yield a higher conversion rate (if your
service has enough hooks to keep the customer in) but you're opening the
service up to abuse.

Perhaps another thing to test is this:

Let the user sign up with a card, and during the trial period ask the user for
feedback on how the service could be improved, either through a survey or free
form. This at least lets you engage in a conversation with the customer and
identify whether or not they're likely to convert. Have a call to action to
convert to the full service so the decision to enter details is in the user's
hands. Measure the responses versus the other method, and post back here :)

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atldev
I've been asking potential customers this very question, and the overwhelming
response has been: AFTER. No surprise, I guess. I'm much more likely to signup
for a trial if I don't need to pull out the card.

Earn my trust, give me an app that is good enough to convert, and Let me
decide.

My apps don't require a card to signup. I'm now working to improve conversion
in the funnel and I want to start with the widest funnel possible.

As for multiple trials? I use email as a unique identifier. It isn't 100%, but
I haven't seen any abuse (including the gmail address+whatever@gmail.com
tweak). Not sure I would do anything about it if I did. My customers tend to
be busy managers who don't have time to game the system. They'll just expense
it anyway.

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willheim
Depends on your app and how sticky it is, I'd say. If it's one of a thousand
other services out there then you are probably better off after. If it's
unique in any way then you may be better off after. If it requires the user to
input a lot of data, not be able to migrate it out, and becomes indispensable
to their work flow then you may consider after.

So when go with "before"? After you've launched, created a market of trust and
are backed by many, many satisfied cheerleaders (clients). The word of mouth
will lead to the easy overcoming of that trust barrier that leads people to
reconsider handing over their CC#.

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dh
There are so many things you need to look at with this question. The first
question I would consider is what is your goal? More signups? More conversion
to paid? Less work? Once you have set the goal you can then test it.

With out data but thinking what I have seen in the past I would say here is
what the possible things are.

\- Collect CC at signup - will reduce pure signups but will have a higher
conversion after the 30 days \- Don't collect CC at signup - more signups, but
lower conversion as more tire kickers and missed emails about putting the CC
in \- Collect CC after signup at first login - maybe a blend of the two above

~~~
tworats
Goal is, not surprisingly, largest number of paying customers.

~~~
dh
Then I would either collect at signup or just after but before use. This will
allow you to focus on attracting the right customers and not dealing with a
ton of people that will never pay you.

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barmstrong
The "30 day trial" concept has been abused by scammy internet marketers to a
point where I don't think people trust it as much, especially for a new or
relatively unknown product.

Does your product work by any chance as a freemium model? I've had better luck
with this than 30 day trials.

It combines the best of both worlds: a free product that requires no credit
card to demonstrate the usefulness, but a premium version which requires
credit card right away.

~~~
tworats
Yes, it will be freemium, so easy to signup without a credit card for the free
product.

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chrismiller
I think asking the user for credit card details before the trial is just one
more barrier preventing them from signing up.

I can fill out a basic signup form in about 30 seconds, if it requires my
credit card details it will take me a few extra minutes to look around and
find my wallet etc.

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ultrasaurus
I'm in a similar boat. Here's what I'm thinking of doing: sign up for free
month, and then after 3 weeks (or they've used the system X times) email them
a reminder to put in their credit card in exchange for another free month.

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duskwuff
Before. Asking for payment details later makes the customer reconsider whether
the service is "worth it". It also gives you an opportunity to run fraud
checks before you charge the card.

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gte910h
Before, I hate doing it after!

