Payment Processing Details and Alternatives

[Ilan Ben-Brith]

Hey everyone,

I'm currently building a course on Open edX and was wondering if someone in this group would be able to help me with the following questions:

1. is there an option to receive payment from Open edX as a wire transfer, rather than through PayPal/other payment processors? 
2. Also, at what frequency will I be receiving payments, whether they are sent by PayPal or other processors (e.g. instantly, monthly, quarterly, etc.)?
   

Thanks in advance!

Best,

Ilan

[Clinton Blackburn]

Hi Ilan,

FYI: I currently work at Stripe.

Here are the answers to your questions:

1. You will need to use another payment processor. Stripe supports ACH transfers in the U.S. and other payment methods worldwide. We do not currently support wire transfers. I did not add ACH support into the edX integration because it is not a typical payment method for edx.org transactions. Most consumers want to immediately pay, and get enrolled instead of waiting hours/days for a transfer. That being said, the Alipay prototype (https://github.com/edx/ecommerce/pull/1602) could be adapted to support ACH payments (sources, as we call them at Stripe).
   
2. That depends on the payment processor. PayPal usually makes the money available for withdrawal within 1-2 days. Stripe automatically pays out after 2 days.
   

What are you trying to achieve with wire transfers? There may be a better solution.

Clinton

[Ilan Ben-Brith]

Hi Clinton,

Thanks for all the help.

To clarify/give some context, these questions were brought up by my finance department while trying to project/calculate revenue for the course we're building given the inbound requests we currently have. After speaking with them a bit more, I think they were under the impression that edX (and not Open edX) would be the ones that would be paying us. They were thinking that receiving a wire from edX would simplify the payment process and were therefore curious as to how often they can expect a wire payment (batching many tuition fees and sending them off as a wire transfer at regular intervals). 

They are aware that PayPal and other payment processors are an option but preferred a wire transfer to reduce fees. However, as you mentioned, we absolutely want consumers/students to be enrolled immediately after paying.

In terms of the withdrawal period, their concern was related to the processing of the transaction and how long it would take to update our account. Meaning if a student enrolls in the course and pays through PayPal, Stripe, or any of the other payment processors that are offered, will our account with that payment processor be updated immediately, weekly, monthly, quarterly etc. once the purchase has taken place?  

From my understanding, with any of these options, once a student enrolls in the course and pays the tuition, our account will get credited/updated immediately. But if we'd like to actually withdraw those funds to our bank account, it would take 1 to 2 days. Correct?

Best,

Ilan

[Clinton Blackburn]

Note that the only way to get a course on edx.org is to establish an official partnership.

If you don't have such a partnership, you cannot post a course on the site and cannot take part in revenue sharing. If you visit that page, you can find contact info to start a potential partnership.

Clinton

[Ilan Ben-Brith]

Right, they don't want that. They just didn't understand entirely how payment on Open edX worked. Does what I previously wrote make sense?

[Clinton Blackburn]

Most payment processors require at least 2 business days to send money (primarily due to the antiquated ACH transfer system). As for whether the transactions are batched and paid as a single transfer, that depends on your processor. PayPal, for example, lets you withdraw whatever amount you want. Stripe automatically sends you your entire balance, and there is no need to request a payout. The best source of this information will be the documentation for the processor.

Clinton

[Ilan Ben-Brith]

Very very much appreciated, thank you!