I've been tasked with implementing an automatic billing solution for varying amounts using PayPal. In the first place I had a hard time figuring out which API(s) to use and I'm still not sure if I picked the correct ones. The more I read, the more dead links and references to old, now defunct, APIs I find. Eventually I stumbled over this:
Note: To use Subscribe, Automatic Billing, and Installment Plan payment buttons, you must have a verified Business Account and sign up for Enhanced Recurring Payments. This feature is currently available for Australia, Canada, UK and US PayPal accounts.
and this:
Note: You must have a PayPal Business account to create and use Automatic Billing buttons. In addition, you must be approved for PayPal Payments Standard Enhanced Recurring Payments. For more information, contact your PayPal representative.
and this:
With PayPal website payment standard ( PayPal subscription button ) integration you can use Enhanced Recurring Payment option for showing card option to your customers. So that your customers will be able to subscribe for recurring payments with the card. The Enhanced Recurring Payment option is available in US, UK, CA, AU. Please contact PayPal customer service team for further help!
This made me wonder if I can make use of PayPal's Enhanced Recurring Payment in the Netherlands. As far as I understand it now I have to use PayPal Checkout and enable Enhanced Recurring Payments (which seems to be unavailable in NL). Is there another way to implement this and which API(s) do I have to use?
The requirements:
- monthly billing of varying amounts (depending on usage of services)
- payments need to be made from a user's PayPal account, not with credit card (we use a different provider for that)
- billing & payments must take place without user interaction (thus automatically)
- each bill has a varying amount of positions / products
- available in the Netherlands
It's been a while, but I just saw that this still had no answer, so I'll just answer it myself. I don't know if there have been changes within the last couple months, but my latest info is that it is not available in The Netherlands without a separate contract with PayPal.