Discussion: Payment Options

What payment options does MobilBid offer to winning patrons?

The system can be configured (i.e. your choice) in three ways:

• Assuming you have linked your MobilBid account with a Stripe merchant account:
  • You can require that a credit card be entered by patrons prior to placing a first bid.  Then the system will simply process those cards at the auction closing and issue detailed "paid" receipts within 3-4 minutes.  This may put some people off, but it totally eliminates the issue of collections and also eliminates any lineups at the end of the evening.
  • You can have the system configured with Stripe, but not require credit cards to be entered prior to first bids.  The system will prompt winning bidders for a credit card at closing, but you can also give winning patrons the option of coming to a checkout desk and paying there by credit card, cash or cheque.  On average we see around 85% of patrons paying by credit card from their phone, but it has been as low as 50% and as high as 100%.  This option significantly reduces the lineups, but you have to have more staff.  How your Master of Ceremonies announces payment options and how staff position the full safety of credit cards on their phones will have a big impact on the ratio.
• You can choose to not have a Stripe merchant account and simply direct all winners to go to the checkout desk and pay by methods you supply.  This is the least desirable from a staffing point of view, and from the perspective of your guests.

Not only can you choose one of these three options, but you can customize the end-of-auction messaging (email and text messages) that go out to winning bidders to guide them to the method you prefer.