Do you like it when companies ask for credit card during trial sign up?
I'm curious to know what your thoughts on this are and if you're a company owner how did you go about this?
I'm curious to know what your thoughts on this are and if you're a company owner how did you go about this?
This question has come up a few times before. Same as last time the popular answers are that, anecdotally, people don't like it/won't sign up if cc is required upfront. However, the data suggests that, on average, requiring a card for the trial increases the net number of conversions [1].
As for whether it's best for your product depends on your customer profile, whether you would get better feedback from more total users vs more targeted users and how good your onboarding is. Which is to say, it depends.
For me personally, I don't really mind signing up with a card if it's B2B and I'm already quite clear on what I want to get out of the product. If it was something like a to-do list app or Evernote though then I probably wouldn't bother.
For my own product, I'm not requiring credit card upfront now because I'd rather just get the feedback from the (currently small) number of users who do come through. Once I'm more confident of the stability of my product both in the product itself and it's market positioning, I'll switch to cc upfront.
[1] - https://stripe.com/atlas/guides/saas-pricing
This answer needs to be higher up. How any one of us feels about it personally is not nearly as relevant as how it applies to your target customers.
This is something you should test, rather than ask. There are tons of successful companies/products that do this that I've encountered personally: LinkedIn, Google Play Music, Amazon Prime, are just a few that come to mind that either do this now or did this previously. You can be sure that if any of those companies are doing it, they've tested out both options and gone with whatever converts better.
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This was a solid answer. If your early staye then no credit card. If you’ve figured out some important things then add the card
No.
Not at all, in fact if I'm asked for that as part of a trial I will NOT continue with signing-up for the trial.
Agreed, I get the feeling that the product isn't that good if I'm forced to enter CC information. And, I've had too many companies try to charge me silly fees that I never consented to just for signing up.
What if a friend recommended the product, would you still go through the process?
And why exactly do you hate it so much that you wont continue with the trial?
I think it's technically unnecessary and also require the would-be user to trust an unknown service with credit card details.
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I don't think we are all requesting a free experience. In fact I'm ready to paid for a good experience. But, if a service offers a free trial period, it should be "free" and not bound to me providing payment details before I have decided to use and trust the service.
Some companies require payment info for a free trial just to prevent abuse of the free trial. It is easier for a user to make 10 email accounts and have 10 free trials but not so much with credit cards or PayPal. We require payment info for a free trial for all of our products(WordAi, ArticleForge & Perfect Tense).
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How does labelling potential customers as having a "ridiculous attitude" help a business grow?
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I wouldn't trial any product that asked for credit card details.
The implication there is of course that once the trial expires, they will start billing me for the product whether I want it or not.
Sure, there's that "oh but you can just cancel" argument, but I shouldn't have to put in extra effort to not pay for something I don't want.
And from the perspective of someone who runs the company - sure you might make a bit more money from suckers who forget to cancel, but many of them will ask for a refund (which makes you look worse to your card processor) or worse will issue a chargeback, which can in some cases actually completely shut down your business. Either way it worsens the public view of your brand.
People sign up to trials because they want to try a product without paying. Not because they want the product.
Thank you for your input. Very well said.
Exactly. Well put Vivan.
Don't ask IH users about this unless they are your target customers, it may lead you to wrong assumptions.
As a general rule, I learned to never ask questions that should be addressed to your target customers to another segment who doesn't know your product and isn't related to your target market.
I was surprised by the amount of opposition here, I somehow thought that trials with card info were the norm. I'll have to test this myself.
This is just a general question. I don't have any hidden agenda by asking this question. I'll keep that in mind tho if the time comes :)
As a consumer, I don't mind as long as the cancellation process is simple and doesn't make me go through hoops.
As a business owner, I prefer asking for credit card upfront. It depends on the business and in my case, it makes sense. Conversion rate has been better when I asked for card upfront. Yes that means less trial sign ups but it doesn't matter how many trial signups you get. What matters is how many paying customers you get.
So I would say depends on your business and product. If a product requires more upfront support and maintenance and is not a simple plug and play product, then perhaps vetting your potential customers upfront is more important and requiring credit card is one such method.
I love it. I can't wait for the next SAAS to ask me to submit my CC, fingerprint, blood samples, family tree, my will, spare keys to my house and promise of giving them my firstborn. This really makes we want to signup to service that possibly is not what I want (obviously they offer no demo to check it) and then have your CC charged even if you cancelled, just because their script has bugs.
But seriously - the only way for small SAAS to win me over is to offer a free way to test their service. Otherwise, I will go for services with good reviews and try to find something established on market (unless the idea is so fresh, it has no competition).
If I am giving SAAS my time, allow for them to test their service on me (so I am a lab rat) and most likely there will be serious bugs and issues that can affect my experience and possible workflow, they can at least give free trial.
"I love it. I can't wait for the next SAAS to ask me to submit my CC, fingerprint, blood samples, family tree, my will, spare keys to my house and promise of giving them my firstborn." 👍
HELL NO! I'll usually pass on the trial if they ask for a credit card.
No, the time for that has passed IMO. Offer a free trial, then if your product is good enough they will get hooked on it and want to pay. If you have a very labour intensive setup process etc that is a different ball game, but if it's what is your email and password, then there is no way that I should have to put in a cc that will automatically be billed.
Seems reasonable. Encourages me to use the product and actual take the trial seriously (as opposed to blindly signing up, forgetting, and never coming back).
What if the price point is above $100 or even more than $200?
I wouldn't be offended by it. But I would be more careful about the purchase (more deliberation before committing). Unless you're hiding a subpar product behind the marketing, it actually instills confidence in me that you're running your business that way—you know what you offer is valuable.
I don't prefer giving my credit card to an unknown company. I'm sure many users hate it.
I completely understand why some companies require credit card info. But that depends on the business.
Some businesses (like my own) could be seriously harmed by fake trial users. A valid credit card is in some sense a fraud prevention feature.
So, if it's a company that seems legit and I think I would benefit from trying it out - I would definitely not let that stop me.
Does price point matter to you? Even if it's a known brand. e.g - $15/mo vs $200+/yr (1 shot payment)
It will make me nervous if the intention is to just try something completely new. But if I know exactly what I'm signing up for and I intend to stay, it's all good.
No I wouldn't enter my credit card just to start a trial. That is a turn off because then you are locked in until you call to cancel your membership. If you offer a trial it should expire automatically and never require a credit card.
nope . I don't even like it when sites ask for email . How will I like giving credit cards ?
So you like it when you see a button that says “demo” and it takes you right to it?
Yea. Especially when people offer something I never need. If you go to some tutors online. They offer free books and weekly emails to catch up . But most of the stuff they ask money for can be easily obtained online for free.
There are some online courses that absolutely worth paying for like
this tutorial https://www.ardanlabs.com/ultimate-go/
But its difficult to find which stuff is worth for money.
It is better to not ask for a credit until the trial period get finishes. This way you can just make a reliable system for your customers. And the customers can trust more on you, your company and your product.
There’s studies that’s it’s been an effective method in a mobile app. You think that differs on web?
The app may pull content and data from the Internet, in similar fashion to a website, or it may download the content so that it can be accessed without an Internet connection.
I've been looking at a few saas sites lately in the video marketing / image creation space. The bigger reason why I dropped off a few of those sites was having to sign up before being able to use the software or see a working demo. Happy to put credit card in if it's something that I can see is going to be beneficial eg help productivity / save time etc.
+1 for requiring CC info on trial signup
No, except companies that their's quality proved by many users like Digital Ocean or Vultr
What if the company was well known but the upfront was $200+? Would you be okay with that?
if it's for work, YES.
if it's for entertain, NO
As a general rule when just starting out remove as much resistance as possible. unless you are spending a bunch of money per user per month.
Bob – Are you speaking from experience from a consumer perspective or from a business owner perspective?
business owner perspective. what are you out? what do you gain? a potential testimonial. feedback on users using or not using the system. even customer service email can lead to tutorials, faqs, etc.
I don't accept during trial period!
Thanks Altaf for your input!
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What if the upfront ask was $200+. Would you be okay with that?
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This is a very good point. I believe that annoying experience has happen to me as well.
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The difference between Netflix and a SaaS (usually) is that people trial Netflix so that they can get free extra time on their subscription as they already know they want it (as it is a well known product).
As a smaller SaaS the trial will mostly be to actually try out a product that the user doesn't have enough information about to make a decision on purchase.
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If the person knows they want the service then why have a trial at all? Surely a separating "trial" and "buy now" would fix this divide? Heck, you can even add {trial time} to their subscription for free when they buy it as a show of good faith.
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