Suggest recurring payment method for paypal

Question

We have specific requirement list for recurring payment method which are as follow:

1. After registration process user can select plan for recurring payment which is like 7$/month.
2. While registering user can enter coupon code and if he/she choose recurring plan then user will get discount on first month only and rest of the month he has to pay decided amount (7$/month) for recurring.
3. User can cancel his/her recurring plan and switch to free account.
4. User's account (premium/free) is depend on the received payment. So i have to check that user's payment is received and if not then i have to update my database and make user as free user.
5. There is a scenario that user signed up with recurring payment method after some month he switched to free account. Now again he wants to sign up with recurring plan. how can i achieve above scenario.

I know there are two options (subscription and recurring payment) but i am confuse which is suitable for this scenario. If there is another solution available then please suggest it.

Answer 1

PayPal doesn't have a coupon code feature so that is something you would need to handle on your own.

You can set up a trial period for a Recurring Profile that lasts a month and would be charged at the lower rate. After that trial period the Recurring Profile would start billing the normal amount of $7.

A buyer will always be able to change their Recurring Profiles within PayPal. You can't have a Recurring Profile open with PayPal for free. We require that a positive amount is provided. You can still track the users on your own but there wouldn't be an active Profile for them within PayPal you can check.

An existing Recurring Profile can be updated but the amount charged cannot be changed more than 20%.

Either a Subscription button through Payments Standard or Recurring Payment API's through Express Checkout will allow you to do this. Express Checkout Recurring Payments can be handled entirely through API calls.