General Overview: Payment Plan Products

Feature Description

Aspenware Commerce supports three unique payment plan configuration options: Aspenware Proprietary Payment Plans, RTP|ONE native Payment Plans, and Siriusware native Payment Plans. All three payment plan configurations support charging a deposit amount on the purchase date and the remaining balance over the course of one or multiple payments, charged on a schedule. See the green and red colored notes above to learn more about limitations across these options.

For RTP|ONE and Siriusware native Payment Plan configurations, the product is sold in Aspenware Commerce at the deposit amount, and the credit card is stored in the POS upon order completion. For these configurations, once the deposit is taken and the card is stored in the correct format in the POS, the management of the credit card information and charging of subsequent payments is fully managed in the POS.

For Aspenware Proprietary Payment Plans, the payment plan product is sold in Aspenware Commerce at the deposit amount, and the resulting payment plan enrollment is managed through the Aspenware Commerce Admin, not the POS. Aspenware Commerce automates subsequent payment plan charges on a pre-configured schedule, notifies the guest if a payment plan payment succeeds or fails, supports a payment “retry schedule” option, and allows the guest to update their credit card information to recover from a failed charge attempt. In general, resorts prefer using Aspenware Proprietary Payment Plans and have much higher percentages of successful charges than when using POS native payment plans for the following reasons:

• Add-on products can be bundled into the payment plan schedule.
  
  

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• Variable payment schedules mean payment plan schedules can vary based on the purchase date. Schedules can be one or many payments on a fixed calendar schedule. For example, if you want to allow someone who purchased in May to pay off their balance in 5 subsequent payments, and someone who purchased in October to pay off their balance in 1 subsequent payment, the same product can be used for both and it will enforce different schedules depending on when the guest purchases.

• Variable pricing (based on purchase date) means the payment plan amount can vary based on the purchase date. For example, if you offer a season pass at $800 from March through May and then the price increases to $1000 starting June 1, the same product can be used for both overall price points and it will enforce different prices (and schedules - see bullet above) depending on when the guest purchases.

• The booking flow is superior because the payment plan schedule, which details payment plan dates and payment amounts on each date, is displayed on the payment plan product detail page and throughout checkout. A payment plan schedule can be configured to display on the product detail page for native POS payment plans, but that schedule is not visible for items in the cart or throughout checkout unless using Aspenware proprietary payment plans.

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• Guests can update their cards in my account, see their payment schedule, and are notified promptly of failed, and successful, payments.
  
  

• The ability to group payments leads to a higher success rate for charges. When a credit card company sees multiple charges for the same amount on the same day it can be seen as fraudulent, but with Aspenware payment plans, these charges are grouped.

• Automated blocking of media in POS if balance unpaid. If the payment plan configuration is set up to block access until paid, Aspenware Commerce automates un-blocking access (un-hotlisting) in the POS once fully paid. If the payment plan configuration is set up to block access once a payment plan payment fails, Aspenware Commerce automates blocking access on the pass (hotlisting) in the POS if the failed charge retry period has passed and if the payment has not been recovered.

Use the links below to learn more about this feature and how it can be used at your resort.