CCBill declines, failed rebills Question

[Stella van Gent]

I talked to some other US webmasters and read also in other forums about more and more problems with ccbill accounts. I never had so many declines, failed rebills, denials and chargebacks like in the last 6 weeks which is meanwhile a hard hit for my small project which is a solo girl site. CCbill support is answering the same sterotypes every time and does not explain what is goin on. I understand, that this especially a problem with credit card companies, and especially an US problem ...but what I do not understand is, that I have an increasing number of european card holders with the same problem. In Germany and other European countries the requirements for a credit card holder are stricter then in the US where credit cards are the first option of payment. I run on my site also a german based biller, called member-cash and there is not a single problem with a subscriber in the described way! Anybody has some ideas and can explain me why it is especilly a ccbill problem then.Thanks in advance and sorry for my bad english

Stella

[NY Jester]

Sometimes the CC Bill rep stops by for these types of threads, hopefully he will see this one and reply to you.

[Cleo]

Paging CCBill_Paul

[Fonz]

It might work better if you put a part of the issue in the actual thread title

[Cleo]

Originally Posted by Fonz

It might work better if you put a part of the issue in the actual thread title

Great idea. I edited the thread title.

[Stella van Gent]

It seems that this is not only my problem...when I see this reaction I am wondering that nobody is going to talk concrete about it?

[Ramster]

I see declines and failed rebills almost every day.

I assume it's credit cards at their limits but sometimes I wonder.

[Cleo]

Originally Posted by Stella van Gent

It seems that this is not only my problem...when I see this reaction I am wondering that nobody is going to talk concrete about it?

What's to talk about other than to bitch about how bad it is.

[ed_banger]

Part of the Credit card processing trouble is with peoples limits being cut back due to the credit crunch... but with the increasing awareness of identity theft, more banks are declining or stopping transactions that are "outside the norm" of users personal spending habits.


I was on a road trip across the country, and we used a credit card to fill up in Minneapolis, then in Des Moines Iowa, then again in Nebraska, by the time we hit Colorado, the card was being declined at the pump. Got a call from back home, and Citibank had left a voicemail on the machine at home saying that they've suspended the credit card due to it possibly being stolen. A call to citibank and yelling at their customer service got the card re-activated.


I've had my debit card declined when ordering items online, even though I have plenty of funds in my account. Ordered a laptop from Apple, an external hard drive from Newegg, ram from crucial, then ordered some performance car parts from europe, all in the same day. Had to use a different card to order the $50 ram from crucial because it was being declined... got a call from the bank the next day asking about possible fraudulent/stolen card activity. (It was the car parts from the european processor, that flagged the card).


With paysites and processors being international, and more people using visa/mastercard DEBIT cards more often, banks are a little more hesitant to authorize abnormal charges.

[Useless]

Frankly, I delighted to hear that lots of people are being declined by the processors. At least it means that someone out there is still attempting to buy porn. Could have had me fooled.

[JimmyDiamond]

hi all, i never post on boards but you guys are cool and i can help with this thread so here goes...

i have used ccbill for years - i checked my declines

2007 - 11%
2008 - 12%
2009 - 13%

so yes they have been going up but not by much at all

its the economy. consumer confidence is at an all time high (people are scared of what is to come) and credit card companies are screwing people (paysites use CC)

FYI i'm a bit of a sneaker freak but i ain't bought no new kicks in months. same for your average porn consumer they will make do with their free stuff for now

ride it out! i assume you didn't spend all your money when we were all coining it in? things will get better

[JimmyDiamond]

oops - i meant consumer confidence is at an all time low (i must be high!)

[CCBill_Paul]

Originally Posted by Stella van Gent

I talked to some other US webmasters and read also in other forums about more and more problems with ccbill accounts. I never had so many declines, failed rebills, denials and chargebacks like in the last 6 weeks which is meanwhile a hard hit for my small project which is a solo girl site. CCbill support is answering the same sterotypes every time and does not explain what is goin on. I understand, that this especially a problem with credit card companies, and especially an US problem ...but what I do not understand is, that I have an increasing number of european card holders with the same problem. In Germany and other European countries the requirements for a credit card holder are stricter then in the US where credit cards are the first option of payment. I run on my site also a german based biller, called member-cash and there is not a single problem with a subscriber in the described way! Anybody has some ideas and can explain me why it is especilly a ccbill problem then.Thanks in advance and sorry for my bad english

Stella

Stella, There is certainly something to be said for the state of the economy and consumers current spending habits, this would not explain a CCBill only problem though. We would be happy to take a look at your initial and rebill declines, as well as a deeper look into all your numbers for you to see if we can find the source of the issue.
Please shoot me over your account number and we will investigate for you. paulk @ ccbill.com ic q 248615940

[tickler]

I read an article about a month back on credit cards by some financial tracking company.

The highlights were that almost 100 million credit cards had been canceled in the USA, and credit limits had been chopped by almost a trillion bucks.

With the bail out banks starting to show profits and pocketing the money without freeing up credit for mortgages and credit cards we are likely to be in for a rough ride for quite some time.

[Cleo]

Breakdown for the last 45 days on one of the sites I manage.
New Failed Amount 14.94%
Rebill Failed Amount 10.56%

[JimmyDiamond]

declines last two months
10.67% - new sales declined
9.89% - rebill sales declined
10.26% - average

so its gone down for me

[housekeeper]

I tend not to see a lot of declines, failed rebills a little more common but not overwhelming. In my experiences the decline will generally prompt the consumer to at least try a couple of times, and I've seen some come back over time.

One trend I have noticed more so is check payments, check payers tend to charge back. I'm of the thinking this may be due to not leaving a paper trail or not wanting the spouse to notice the CC charges, certianly worse than a decline...

[Stella van Gent]

Originally Posted by housekeeper

I tend not to see a lot of declines, failed rebills a little more common but not overwhelming. In my experiences the decline will generally prompt the consumer to at least try a couple of times, and I've seen some come back over time.

One trend I have noticed more so is check payments, check payers tend to charge back. I'm of the thinking this may be due to not leaving a paper trail or not wanting the spouse to notice the CC charges, certianly worse than a decline...

but as I mentioned for a solo girl site I have until this day more then 6 declines this week...this is around 200$ which is pretty much for me...so I think it depends on the monthly amount of a website generally if something is more in common...I did not have one decline in 6 years working with ccbill and since 7 weeks now about 19 now, that's a bit much coincidence..I think...

Never mind ...and thanks for your answer

Greets Stella

[NY Jester]

Stella, I think you were given the answer you needed by the CC rep above. He left contact information and told you that they'd gladly look into the issue with you. I think thats your best bet. Asking us for help with your site's declines really makes no sense. To me it only relates to you..as you have seen there are plenty of declines on other sites from the replies in this thread but that only reassures you that youre not alone. I would take Paul up on the offer and have them look further into your situation. All the best.

[Stella van Gent]

Originally Posted by NY Jester

Stella, I think you were given the answer you needed by the CC rep above. He left contact information and told you that they'd gladly look into the issue with you. I think thats your best bet. Asking us for help with your site's declines really makes no sense. To me it only relates to you..as you have seen there are plenty of declines on other sites from the replies in this thread but that only reassures you that youre not alone. I would take Paul up on the offer and have them look further into your situation. All the best.

thanks for the hint I already did that ...but I have no reaction so far...

[NY Jester]

Well, hopefully he makes good on what he offered and you can get some needed answers.

[Stella van Gent]

Well finally I got an anser but not from himself...as far as I understand that CCbill goes into a batch mode, means people buy a subscription and because of batch mode their cc is not proofed directly (Those subscribers are displayed in my admin panel for 5 hours and more). Finally they got access to my member area and once the batch mode is over they got proofed by ccbill. Now it happens with negativ result that they are declined. This happens with me in the last 24 h 5 times..all had access to my member area during that time as far as I understand my logfiles corectly. 3 times 60 $ 2 time 25 $ makes around 230 $! What is strange to me in addition is that most of them now are europeans I tried to contact all of the subscribers to find out from their site unfortunatly now one get back to me...may be fraud? I have no idea ..is this situation also known with other webmasters, I mean in amount and time?

Greets Stella

[B O B]

Hey Stella,
Long time no talk...

hit me up on ICQ, I can help 184807

[lassiter]

Originally Posted by Stella van Gent

Well finally I got an anser but not from himself...as far as I understand that CCbill goes into a batch mode, means people buy a subscription and because of batch mode their cc is not proofed directly (Those subscribers are displayed in my admin panel for 5 hours and more). Finally they got access to my member area and once the batch mode is over they got proofed by ccbill. Now it happens with negativ result that they are declined. This happens with me in the last 24 h 5 times..all had access to my member area during that time as far as I understand my logfiles corectly.

This was one of my many issues with iBill back when I ran a couple of paysites. They were small niche - domination and amateur girl sites - with 100% exclusive, but limited in amount, content, due to it all being shot on site. iBill would allow a new signup full access to the sites for a couple of days before declining their card, and frankly, since I wasn't kink.com, all of the content on my poor sites could have been, and was, downloaded in a few hours. If my corner liquor store can get a CC verification before letting me leave the store with 2 bottles of tequila, I'd think professional rebilling services (IPSPs or whatever they're called now) could get verification in real time too, before setting a username and password and allowing access into a members area. Seems to take 20-30 seconds for most CC transactions.