Using PayPal in Germany to pay for Evernote Subscription

[vivo 1]

Hi,

it seems there are problems when paying via PayPal, if you are using the german "Lastschrift".

I had some EMail-discussions with customer support. The best information I could squeeze from them:

It is for security reasons, I would have to be a mathematician to understand it and that it should work in some days.

It should also work when using a credit card. I have both a credit card and a "Lastschrift" account. But

that does not help.

I tried after two weeks, and then after 4 days. Does not. Paid via Google Checkout which is rather less

secure.

Victor

[engberg 89]

Thanks for letting us know about this.

We've heard from other people that PayPal rejects some other European payment methods.

Unfortunately, this is PayPal's decision, not ours. We've asked to have them accept the widest variety of payments as possible, but they've decided that certain methods are too risky for a recurring subscription payment like ours. They won't give us details about the reasons, unfortunately. They say this is for security reasons so people don't circumvent their anti-fraud countermeasures.

So we share your frustration!

Thanks

[jalexand 0]

I just tried to sign up and I get an error saying

At this time, we are unable to process your request. Please return to Evernote Corporation and try another option.

Any Ideas?

Thanks

Jason

[engberg 89]

Unfortunately, this error occurred on PayPal's web site, so it's a little hard for us to tell what failed. Were you able to log in to your PayPal account before you saw this error? Did you see the screen on PayPaly with the dollar amount and the "Agree and Pay" button?

We've heard recently from a few users who had this error on PayPal if they did not have a credit card on file with PayPal first. You may want to try that, and possibly ask PayPal support why they rejected the payment.

You could also try paying with Google Checkout instead.

Thanks

[Pete248 9]

Have the exact same problem with PayPal (although error message in German).

Unfortunately, this error occurred on PayPal's web site, so it's a little hard for us to tell what failed. Were you able to log in to your PayPal account before you saw this error? Did you see the screen on PayPaly with the dollar amount and the "Agree and Pay" button?

I can log into my PayPal account.

I don't see the screen on PayPal with the dollar amount and the "Agree and Pay" button? The error message appears on the next page just after I filled in my login/password.

We've heard recently from a few users who had this error on PayPal if they did not have a credit card on file with PayPal first. You may want to try that, and possibly ask PayPal support why they rejected the payment.

I have 2 credit cards on file with PayPal. I phoned PayPal and they said, they don't see a payment request on their system. They suggested to contact the dealer as the process must have stopped, before it reached PayPal's website.

You could also try paying with Google Checkout instead.

Hmm well, but registering with another processor and entering all my cc data again, just to be able to pay for Evernote? So far PayPal worked for all my purchases.

[gigaset2000s 0]

Hi,

read several topics about the paypal problem and especially with german user. Do you have a workaround? I like to try first the monthly option to check and after my test I like to prolong the premium option. I have not a credit card and google checkout is not a option in Germany.

thx

[phossi 0]

for me too, please.

Paypal worked for every payment in the world for years.

I want to pay and can not...hmm

[C.Noize 2]

I have the same problem.

I also live in Germany and i can't pay via Paypal. Credit cards aren't very common here and google checkout isn't possible too. I very much like to use Evernote, but i won't get a credit card just to pay for Evernote. I don't need it for anything else.

It would be great if you could look into the problem with the Paypal payment option and get it fixed.

PS: I really really love your product and can't imagine to live without it anymore. Even though i still have to live with 40 megs a month.

[engberg 89]

Unfortunately, this problem is at Paypal. We told them that we want to accept as many users as possible, and we told them that we don't want to exclude Germans. But this is their decision, unfortunately, and we can't change it. This is related to using PayPal for a recurring "subscription", so they want to have some sort of card on file with your account.

[C.Noize 2]

That's to bad, allthough i don't exactly understand why i can pay everywhere else via Paypal at companies located in the United Staates except yours.

There must be something different in the method the payment is handled.

[engberg 89]

I think that PayPal may work differently for a single purchase (e.g. a book) versus a recurring subscription.

You could try making a "Gift" purchase via PayPal, but give your own email address as the recipient:

https://www.evernote.com/Gift.action

Since this is a one-time purchase, maybe it will work better in PayPal

[C.Noize 2]

That could very well be the case and the idea to buy a gift certificate is very clever, but unfortunately it doesn't work either.

But this time it's not Paypal that prevents me from paying. This time, i can't even select Paypal as a payment option. Although there is a Paypal icon available, it directs me to Google Checkout if i click it and not to Paypal. Is this a bug in your website?

[engberg 89]

What web browser and operating system are you using? You should see an option to pay with PayPal on the second step of the "Gift" process:

[C.Noize 2]

That's exactly what i'm seeing and if i click on the Paypal button i get directed to the same site as if i had clicked on the Google Checkout button.

I tried it with Opera 10.53 and after that didn't work also with Internet Explorer 8 on Windows Vista and Windows 7. I always got the same results. The strange thing is, that the selection works perfectly with the subscription checkout. The problem only exists with the gift checkout.

[engberg 89]

Ah, I've reproduced this problem and filed a bug with Engineering.

[C.Noize 2]

Thx. Maybe there is a chance i can purchase Evernote afterall.

[C.Noize 2]

Hi!. It's me again.

It's been nearly a month now since you have filed the bug report and the bug is still there.

Do you have an ETA when it's gonna be fixed or don't you even intend tofix it? If so, then tell me, so that i don't have to bother checking in every few days to check if it is fixed or not.

[engberg 89]

Unfortunately, I've filed a bug but don't have a date for when this will be fixed.

I do apologize for the inconvenience.

[imoses44 0]

I'm a user in the USA unable to upgrade to Evernote Premium using Paypal. I'm unsure if this problem was previously limited to overseas customers.

Thanks.

[engberg 89]

PayPal doesn't give us very good information about why they will let some users pay for a subscription and deny others. We've asked, and they're a bit vague for something to do with security countermeasures.

It seems that some people's accounts are not set up with the right type of credit card that they can reliably bill every month/year, so they don't let you pay for subscription-based services with these accounts.

[C.Noize 2]

BTW: There is still the bug on your site, that i mentioned a few month ago.

If you want to order your gift at https://www.evernote.com/Gift.action and want to pay for it via PayPal by pressing the PayPal button you don't get redirected to PayPal. Instead you get redirected to Google Checkout.

[derio 0]

Has this issue been resolved? It's 20 months later and when I tried to purchase a yearly subscription I got the same message.

Under the payment options is this message:

Make sure that your PayPal account:

Is in good standing.

Has a verified bank account and credit card.

Has a verified email.

I made sure that all of the above are as needed + I have a positive balance in Paypal way more than what is required for a year subscription.

The only thing I can think of is that I have only one credit card on paypal and it's set to expire sometime next month. I don't have the new one yet. Is this why I get the error?

I'm asking because I read somewhere on the forum that a recurrent billing must be set up and for that, a credit card is needed. Why should a recurring billing be set up? I can understand if it's about monthly subscriptions since it's an inconvenience to repay every month but why would this system be needed for one year subscriptions?

[highend 0]

Mh, several months later and I get exactly the same message. Paypal isn't working for either a monthly or yearly payed account (at least for german users)?

[Phil Dean 150]

For EU customers using PayPal, PayPal is very strict on what types of payment are on file. Can you confirm that you have a credit card on file with PayPal that is accepted by them.Germans frequently have problems with this PayPal policy because their PP account does not have an acceptable credit card linked to it. Whatever cards they may have associated with their PP records do not meet PP's threshold for anti-fraud. If you can still not pay via PayPal I would recommend that you pay directly on our website with a valid credit card that we accept.

We have no control over this policy ... PayPal gives us very limited visibility on their anti-fraud policies

[icoco_de 34]

Same here. So as it seems there *must* be a credit card associated with Paypal in order to accept this payment. In my case, that's a bit inconvenient, because I wanted to pay the Premium annual fee as a tribute to the good work and to support Evernote rather than because I would really need Premium. I wanted to pay from my business' Paypal account rather than from my private account. Unfortunately, my business account does not have a credit card associated but bills directly to my company's bank account. So it's a bit of a hassle to get it done. But I understand that this is not Evernotes fault.

[WobIntosh 0]

Hi,

ich habe ein Problem: Ich wollte mein Evernote auf Premium "upgraden" und dabei mit PayPal bezahlen, aber mir stellt sich da immer folgender Fehler in den Weg:

Wir können Ihre Anfrage zurzeit leider nicht verarbeiten. Kehren Sie zu Evernote zurück, und wählen Sie eine andere Option aus.

Also habe ich das mehrmals jeweils einige Tage später nochmal probiert, aber der Fehler ist immernoch der Selbe. Ist das ein Problem mit meinem PayPal-Account oder mit dem von Evernote?

Danke schonmal, mfg Fabian

p.s.: Das Problem ist vor allem, dass ich keine Kreditkarte habe und PayPal somit die einzige Option ist

[j_schuster 0]

Hab genau das gleiche Problem. Ich würde Geld bezahlen, wenn ihr mich lassen würdet ;-)

[GrumpyMonkey 4,320]

Hi. Welcome to the forums!

You are straining my German language capabilities and giving me a headache here! Let's speak in English here

So, if I understand you correctly, you are in Germany. You want to upgrade to premium. You don't have a credit card. So, you tried to use PayPal. But, you were unable to do it. Right?

Well, this sounds like a problem for Evernote Staff. Hopefully, they can shed some light on the problem. Or, maybe some users out there have had success with PayPal overseas?

[j_schuster 0]

I have 2 creditcards registered but the same problem (Germany)

[hakan 6]

Hello,

since Evernote added Paypal as a payment option there where some problems with German Evernote user who tried to pay for a Premium subscription over Paypal.

The problem still persists because Paypal requires a credit card linked to the account or it won't allow these automated periodic payment subscriptions. And Credit cards aren't so common here in Germany and we poor university students can't even afford them.

So I tried it over the in-app purchase in the Android app and there I could choose between adding a credit card to my Google Checkout account or just to use the carrier billing option. I tried it with the latter one but during finishing the process it failed and according to Google the "delivery time" was too long.

My guess is that Evernote needs to allow carrier billing for in-app purchases and Google has no decent error message for this problem.

At last I noticed the Evernote Premium Gift option and I tried to send a 1 year premium gift to my own account. Suddenly Paypal offered me to pay this procedure with the direct debit procedure (the normal "Lastschriftverfahren" which I am used to) and I finally got my Premium account.

Now I want to ask you guys: Was this ok? Can I do this and are there no problems with it? After one year will I still be able to do this again?

And the most important: Please change this! It is not the right way to make your potential customers so many problems just because they want to pay for your service.

Afair this problem is related to the subscription model and these automated repeated payments you guys are trying to handle with PayPal. It is a nice comfort feature for those with credit cards but it completely cuts off those who don't have such a card. I am not asking you guys to get rid of this way, I am just asking to guys to give us an alternative option. Just a single payment option over PayPal without any subscriptions as in the gifting method would be ok.

Sure, the Premium service still can be limited to 12 months but after that I can do this payment again.

I hope that you guys understood my problem and that you will do something about this in the future.

Greetings,

Hakan

[gazumped 12,037]

Hey hakan, welcome to the Forum. I'm sorry you had such an interesting time getting here. I have no connection with Evernote - apart from using their product rather a lot - and being (much) too old to be a student I don't have your card problem. However one of my fundamental business credos is "don't make it hard for your customers to pay you money". I would hope that Evernote will make it easier for you to renew your membership in the next 12 months. Good luck!

[Snugglesthemonkey 0]

Hello,

I am in China and I used my Union Pay bank card through paypal..

First..Get on a VPN (Evernote gifts are not available in China) so you appear to be in the US.

Second...Buy a gift and pay through paypal and send it to yourself...you won't need a credit card..

Third..BAM! Enjoy

[wollfieh 0]

Just to bump this topic:

German user here, cannot pay via paypal. My paypal account is backed by my bank account, and works for other transactions with partners in the US.

Since this problem appears to exist for the last 3 years, it's obviously no biggie for you to not get my money. So I'm just sharing this because.

Have a nice day.

[Tim998 1]

Also tried to pay today.

Same error message.

I have a credit card on file with Paypal

As previous users have said 3 years same problem.

Perhaps the German market is too small for Evernote to care to solve the problem.

[hanswing 0]

Same error message here.

 

Perhaps the German market is so small, because no one cares about this problem!?
This problem is barely to beat in absurdity. User want to pay, but the service is not able...
Come on...
 

[kingofcomedy 0]

Same problem. I just wanted to try the premium-features for one month, but I can't.

[downandout 1]

Well this is just ridiculous!   I'm in Germany as well and I have no problem paying for my LastPass subscription using PayPal.

 

But anyway here's the solution from another thread (http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/10106-paypal-and-german-user/?p=47811)

 

You could try making a "Gift" purchase via PayPal, but give your own email address as the recipient:

https://www.evernote.com/Gift.action

Since this is a one-time purchase, maybe it will work better in PayPal

 

I just tried this and it works.

[gwendlandt 0]

I am a new evernote user and wanted to upgrade by paypal

 

I have gone through all the related threats and I must say that is just a shame what has been stated by evernote.

I am using paypal every day and I do have several subsriptions running, there are several credit cards and bank account verified and registered with paypal.

In 4 years I never met any service provider being unable to get paypal working with his billing.

 

I really wonder if evernote is really interested in solving this issue as it is known to this board for THREE years now.

To be honest I am sure that evernote has enough professionals being able to get this working if evernote just wanted.

 

I would surely not register my credit card with evernote after the latest security issues with this service.

Since I am not able to pay with paypal I can not become a paying customer.

[Ollyhal 0]

Well this is just ridiculous!   I'm in Germany as well and I have no problem paying for my LastPass subscription using PayPal.

 

But anyway here's the solution from another thread (http://discussion.evernote.com/topic/10106-paypal-and-german-user/?p=47811)

 

 

You could try making a "Gift" purchase via PayPal, but give your own email address as the recipient:

https://www.evernote.com/Gift.action

Since this is a one-time purchase, maybe it will work better in PayPal

 

I just tried this and it works.

 

wenn man jedoch nur einmal für einen Monat den Premium Dienst testen will, funktioniert auch der Umweg über das Geschenk nicht, da es direkt für ein Jahr ist.

 

To the Evernote admins who are not able to speak german: I doubt you care about the problem, so fix the payment problem or live with the fact that you are excluding some customers who are not willing to give their credit card information to a company that

a ) was hacked before

b ) has no interest in paying customers for at least more than 3 years.

 

Olly

[Snowmay 0]

Hi same here, trying to pay for the premium version of evernote, but seems not to be possible for german users. my creditcard is in paypal - so dont know why its not working ...

and very strange that no one is fixing that problem - as it seems to exist since 3 years . have to think about becoming a prem. user now ...

[tr_D 0]

Hi there,

the problem still exists. As far as I've understand the problem with paypal is the recurring monthly or yearly payment. So the easiest way would be that evernote gives up the recurring payment. So everybody pays for one year. When the year is over evernote presents a hint "your membership is over" do you want to renew? Did you ever think of this option? Its ridiculous at the moment. The problem exists for 3 years now and you are not able to fix it? I like to pay but I cant.

[GER_TX 6]

Now I also know a couple of people in the German Google+ group that have the same problem.

As a German speaker, I wonder why you guys still don't have a German support that could help with this problem.
I am already translating from here almost weekly to the German group as not everybody that has Evernote actually is able to speak English or is willingly to come here when they have a paid account.

 

So is there something Evernote can do, or do I have do ask for the Germans in general at PayPal?

[GER_TX 6]

A little update in this one, you have to write to support@evernote.com and ask for a gift option.

 

My German friends won't be very happy about that.

[merusalem 0]

Another update: I can confirm that the problem still exists for German PayPal / Evernote users in September 2014.

 

I wonder who will arrange the 5-year anniversary of this open problem? I am currently moving to a bigger place, so we could meet in Bavaria, 30 miles from Munich. Munich - the Oktoberfest city, and Oktoberfest starts in eight days. So, if anyone feels like joining the anniversary in Bavaria...

 

My situation is as for several other users in this thread: I use PayPal a lot for single payments AND for recurring payments where the recipient is located in the USA. In other words, this is NOT a general problem of PayPal not being able to process this kind of requests.

 

I called PayPal support, and they told me: Yes, they see that I made a payment request to Evernote.com three times within the last half hour, and that PayPal each time tried to approve the payment, but that this did not work. Why, they cannot say from their logs: could be browser cookies, could be the recipient's use of the API, could be that something within PayPal does not work right. It is not browser cookies; after testing with the same results on IE and Chrome, and after clearing cookies, it still does not work.

 

After trying to use GER_TX's workaround from one message above this one, contacting support@evernote.com, asking for a gift option, I must say that it is unuusally difficult to send money to Evernote - this email account does not exist any more.  Guess what Evernote Help tells me about gifting? "Evernote Premium customers can purchase 1 gift per month - Both free and Premium customers can also contact support@evernote.com to apply for a one-time exception to the purchase limit." Interesting, to say the least.

 

OK, the official way to contact Evernote support nowadays is through the "Contact support" menu point in Evernote. Trying that now.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,320]

i don't remember there ever having been a support email option. you can write to support with a support ticket (i'm sure they have a folder where they stick inquiries from disgruntled germans), but they will probably tell you about the inability to arrange recurring payments through paypal in germany. regardless of whether this is accurate or not, it is kind of a tradition now, like oktoberfest, so i think it is unlikely to change. i think you can purchase one year of premium through the marketplace, and that is the way users have worked around this in the past.

[Snowmay 0]

One year before I posted here in this thread that papal payment is still not possible. what happened until now > one year after that post: Nothing at all

a little bit strange, that EN doesnt care about the problem that german users can not use PP for premium suscription...

[chris101 0]

The isse is still not fixed AFTER 7 YEARS!! I contacted support today and sent them a link to this forum thread.

 

[chris101 0]

On 5/17/2016 at 1:35 PM, chris101 said:

The isse is still not fixed AFTER 7 YEARS!! I contacted support today and sent them a link to this forum thread.

 

No reply, yet, as of today. I contacted support again, begging to be able to purchase a 1 year gift subscription.

 

There are not many companies that get away with their customers having to beg to give them money. Maybe, being European, my money is not good enough for them?

 

 

[chris101 0]

Support answered two days later with no other payment options. I gave up and I am now a happy Google Keep user.