PayPal Subscription IPN and other

Question

I am wondering is this even possible or is there a simple way to do this. I am building a file-sharing site like Droplr or CloudApp and by fun chance unlike those two sites I do not offer fixed pricing, instead I offer pay-per-use billing on the amount of storage the customer uses up. But there is a small yearly fee for plans.

So lets say customer selects Tier 1 - Basic Plan. The plan allows for 5GB max file size, $5/yr fee and $1.00/gb

How would I go about charging the customer for this? Sure the first $5/yr can processed fairly easy and added to PayPal subscription and recurring payments, but should there be 2nd subscription for the storage?

Answer 1

I would recommend taking a look at the Adaptive Payments API , specifically Preapproval and Pay .

That will allow people to setup preapproved payments with you based on criteria set when the profile is created. Then you can charge them at any time with variable amounts as long as they fall within the profile's criteria.

Another option would be to utilize Reference Transactions ( DoReferenceTransaction ) after running an original Auth or Sale through Express Checkout or Payments Pro .