Payment help/suggestions

[gilgil2]

Hi

I would like to have a system where I offer a free service, and then two other tiers where people pay different amounts for a different service, so say £5 and £10. I want this to be put into a MySql database, so I'll have a column and for each row there will be a value 1,2 or 3 representing whether they have paid or not and this will then influence the service they receive.

So when they register the details they will be given an option of what level of service they want, and then when the payment is processed this will be reflected in the MySql database.

What is the best way to go about this? I don't have any experience in this area with paypal etc. making sure the payment goes through and is legitimate etc. So any suggestions on how to do this - whether there is a simple way I can do it myself, a paid for service or anything else, as long as it is not too expensive.

Thanks in advance

[reganstar]

Your entire task can be handled through online order forms. A remotely hosted form builder might be just what you need.

I recommend you check out 123ContactForm, it's a very intuitive and powerful form builder. You can set a radio buttons field, for instance, where people to choose between the 3 service plans. Then you can assign price values to each alternative and link the form with a payment processor (btw, you can choose between PayPal, Authorize.Net and Google Checkout). That's it, the user will be automatically redirected to PayPal to do the actual transaction then he gets a thank you message and your data goes to a database. You can access this database with any query and export submissions to CSV. This service ain't free (it's $29 per month) but it really solves the job imo (this, of course, if I understood your requirements correctly).