Create a Recurring Payment Profile

This page enables you to create a new recurring payment profile for a customer. A profile is your definition of a recurring transaction for a single customer. The profile includes all information required to automatically bill the customer a set amount on a recurring basis.

For more information, refer to Recurring Payments.

Be sure to enter information for all fields unless they are marked "optional".

Profile Information

Product/Service - Enter a specific description, such as "magazine subscription" or an item name. This information can be used to search for a profile.
Profile Reference - Enter a profile identification number or name, such as invoice number or a product number. This information can be used to search for a profile.

Card Information

Enter the credit card information for the new profile.

Field	Description
Card type	Select a credit card type from the drop-down menu. Only the options displayed in the drop-down menu are supported.
Card number	Enter the customer's credit card number that is used for payments. If you are creating a profile using information from a transaction, then the credit card information from that transaction is used, and you do not have the option to enter a credit card number here. Enter the credit card number without any spaces or dashes. For example, 5105105105105100.
Expiration date	Enter the expiration date of the credit card to be used for payments. If you are creating a profile using information from a transaction, then the credit card information from that transaction is used, and you do not have the option to enter an expiration date here. Enter the credit card expiration date in the following format: mm/yyyy.
CSC	For verification, enter the credit card's card security code. For Visa, MasterCard, and Discover, this three-digit number appears on the back of the card after the credit card number. For American Express, this four-digit number appears on the front of the card above the credit card number. For more information, refer to Card Security Code.

Billing Information

Enter the new billing information for the profile. This is the address where the customer receives their credit card statements.

Field	Description
First name	Enter the billing contact's first name.
Last name	Enter the billing contact's last name.
Country	Select the billing contact's country of residence from the drop-down menu.
Billing address	Enter the street number and name of the billing address. This is the address where the customer receives their credit card statements.
City	Enter the city of the billing address.
State	Select the state of the billing address from the drop-down menu.
ZIP	Enter the zip code of the billing address.
Phone	Enter the phone number of the billing contact.
Email	Enter the email address of the billing contact.

Shipping Information

Select one of the following options:

No shipping address is required if you are not shipping anything for this transaction.
Shipping address is the same as the billing address if the billing and shipping addresses are the same.
Enter a different shipping address if your billing and shipping addresses are different. This option displays the fields of the shipping address where you enter the shipping address information. Refer to the billing information table above for additional information.

Failed Payment Settings

Number of failed payments - Specifies the number of payment periods for which the transaction is allowed to fail before PayPal deactivates the profile. For example, if you bill monthly and specify 3 in the "Allow a maximum of" field, PayPal attempts to process the card for three months (possibly with multiple retries during each monthly payment period). If the transaction is not approved during that time, PayPal deactivates the profile. Selecting "No Limit" specifies that retry attempts should occur until the profile expires (that is, when the term is complete).
Rollover billing - Allows PayPal to automatically add any outstanding balance from previous billing cycles to the next billing cycle.

Billing Terms

Enter the payment amount information for the new profile.

Currency - Select the currency type for the transaction from the drop-down menu.
Start date - The date that the first payment should be processed. Subsequent payments are processed in the next payment period that you specify. Use today’s date or a date in the future.
Include trial period payments - Select this option if you want to set up a recurring charge for a trial offer to your customers.

Trial Period Payments

Field	Description
Payment cycle	Specifies how often the payment occurs. You have two options: Enter a numeric value for how often you want to collect payments in terms of days, weeks, months, or years. For example, you can choose to collect payments every 18 weeks. Schedule to collect payment on the 1st and 15th of each month.
Number of trial period payments	The number of payments to be made over the duration of the trial period.
Amount	Enter a fixed amount to be charged to the customer’s credit card each payment period, without shipping charges and taxes.
Shipping	Enter the shipping charges for the transaction.
Tax	The tax amount is automatically calculated based on the numbers you entered in the fields above.
Total	The total amount that the customer will be charged is for the transaction is automatically calculated based on the numbers you entered in the fields above.

Regular Recurring Payments

Field	Description
Payment cycle	Specifies how often the payment occurs. You have two options: Enter a numeric value for how often you want to collect payments in terms of days, weeks, months, or years. For example, you can choose to collect payments every 18 weeks. Schedule to collect payment on the 1st and 15th of each month.
Number of Recurring Payments	The number of payments to be made over the duration of the agreement. For example, a one-year, monthly payment contract has a term of 12. A value of 0 (zero) specifies an indefinite number of payments.
Amount	Enter a fixed amount to be charged to the customer’s credit card each payment period, without shipping charges and taxes.
Shipping	Enter the shipping charges for the transaction.
Tax	The tax amount is automatically calculated based on the numbers you entered in the fields above.
Total	The total amount that the customer will be charged is for the transaction is automatically calculated based on the numbers you entered in the fields above.

One-time Transaction

You can optionally submit an Authorization or Sale transaction when submitting a new profile, for example, a setup fee. Such a transaction is not considered a payment.

To create such a payment, perform the following steps:

Select the Process one-time transaction checkbox.
Optionally, select the Create a profile if your one-time transaction fails checkbox. By default, a one-time transaction failure cancels both the one-time transaction and the profile you were trying to create. If you select this box, PayPal will create the profile and show the one-time transaction as part of the outstanding balance.
Enter the Total amount, including tax and shipping, for the optional transaction.

If an amount is not specified, then a profile is created, but no transaction is processed.
If the credit card is successfully authorized or charged, the profile is created and activated.

If the card is declined, the profile is not created.

Click Continue to proceed to the Review a recurring payment profile page to verify the information you input. On that page, click Submit to process the transaction or Update to return to this page to make modifications.