I didn't say 250 signups, I said 250 paying accounts ;)
About 170 of those have been around for over 3 mos. We have been growing very slowly (on purpose). We've been billing >100 customers a month for over 10 months.
I'm not saying there will never be chargebacks, but I suspect a lot of the initial accounts are people who know me from my blogging, speaking, etc., and so are a lot less likely to initiate a chargeback. Yay, social ties.
If we have a 15% charge failure rate (to put the approval rate backwards), that's normal, you think?
Historically speaking, how many of your charge failures have been due to things that get fixed -- expired cards, maxed out lmit -- and how many are signs of a fake/worthless account?
So as long as your growth rate is that low you'll do fine. It's when your growth rate increases that you have to be careful.
> If we have a 15% charge failure rate (to put the approval rate backwards), that's normal, you think?
That's fine, really. Pretty much on par of where I am, completely different service but all the same mechanisms apply.
> Historically speaking, how many of your charge failures have been due to things that get fixed -- expired cards, maxed out lmit
Expired cards are the 'killer' of most accounts, especially if you charge a low amount, the sweet spot is about $20 /mo, so we charge (deviously) $19.95, that way we extend the total $volume per account at the expense of our short term income. 619.95 > 3$24.95.
Maxed out limits only happen around Christmas, and our IPSP takes care of that by retrying on the charge a few weeks later.
> and how many are signs of a fake/worthless account?
Hardly any. Those chargebacks we do get usually are attributable to identity theft and outright fraud. That sucks because as a merchant you have very little tools to combat this. VBV sure helps though.
About 170 of those have been around for over 3 mos. We have been growing very slowly (on purpose). We've been billing >100 customers a month for over 10 months.
I'm not saying there will never be chargebacks, but I suspect a lot of the initial accounts are people who know me from my blogging, speaking, etc., and so are a lot less likely to initiate a chargeback. Yay, social ties.
If we have a 15% charge failure rate (to put the approval rate backwards), that's normal, you think?
Historically speaking, how many of your charge failures have been due to things that get fixed -- expired cards, maxed out lmit -- and how many are signs of a fake/worthless account?