Ask HN: Ask for credit card before or after free trial?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1688951

by tworats • 16 years ago

9 18 16 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

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?

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.

ndl• 16 years ago

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.

jrallison• 16 years ago

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".

il• 16 years ago

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• 16 years ago

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.

tworats3• 16 years ago

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.

gte910h• 16 years ago

Before, I hate doing it after!

duskwuff• 16 years ago

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.

drewbuschhorn• 16 years ago

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.

barmstrong• 16 years ago

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.

tworats3• 16 years ago

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

atldev• 16 years ago

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.

_b8r0• 16 years ago

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 :)

ultrasaurus• 16 years ago

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.

chrismiller• 16 years ago

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.

dh2• 16 years ago

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

tworats3• 16 years ago

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

dh2• 16 years ago

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.

willheim• 16 years ago

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#.

Ask HN: Ask for credit card before or after free trial?

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