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IPN is the acronym for the Internet Payment Network that many program owners integrate into their scripts so that any payments made via PayPal, AlertPay, 2Checkout and other online payment processors are automatically accredited to a member’s account.

While this is a reliable script, for the most part, it does require a little cooperation from the member in order for the transaction to be accredited properly.

Here are just a few tips to help you so that your automatic payments can be properly processed seamlessly and effortlessly by the script:

1) Make certain that your online payment processor email address matches the one you have on your program account. If you are using PayPal or Alert Pay, you should be able to add a certain amount of email addresses to your account. But you would do well to try to use only one email address at all times, and be certain that it matches your account to which you are making the payment.

Please see the note below that if a payment processor account is used by more than one person, this needs to differ slightly.

2) Make a note of your transaction identification number when you complete the transaction on the payment processor. Some programs will send you to a “thank you” page upon completion and ask you for that so that there is a record in their “back office” for future reference.

3) Be certain that you use the drop down box on the thank you page to identify which payment processor you used to make the payment.

4) If the thank you page asks for your userid number, you will want to furnish that as well. So if there is a userid number on your account for which you are making the purchase, be sure to have that handy.

5) If your registered email address with the program does not match your payment processor email address, then you may need to note the registered email address on the form you fill out to inform the program owner of your purchase. So make certain you have that handy as well.

Providing all information that the form requests is just as much for your own protection as for that of the program owner. It may be useful if, at some time in the future, you need to ask a question about your purchase. Therefore it is important that you keep all pertinent data for your accounts updated and someplace that you can access while filling out forms and/or purchase orders. I highly recommend that you put together a little file that you can store on your computer with your usernames, userid numbers, registered email addresses with each of your accounts and any other data that you may have run across when dealing with payment forms online.

Note: If you share an online payment processor with someone else, and you both have accounts with the same online programs, be certain that you register different email addresses for your accounts so that the IPN accredits the correct account for the purchase. Using one email address for all purchases, regardless of the account owner’s name, will cause the IPN to seek out the first account that comes up in a database, and that may not necessarily be the one for which you wished the purchase to be accredited. If you at least add your partner’s email address to your payment processor account, and use that when he or she purchases from the shared account, then the IPN will be more likely to properly accredit the right account.

Ex: My partner and I both have account on XYZ program. We both make purchases, and are upgraded. In order for our separate purchases to be processed through ABC Payment Processor using the IPN, I add my own email account to ABC, and my partner adds his or hers. Then when I make a purchase at XYZ program and enter my email address, the IPN knows to look for the account with that registered email. When my partner makes a purchase and uses his or her email address to complete the form, the IPN knows to seek that one out rather that accrediting MY account. This is also why it is helpful to have your own data for your account for which you are making the purchase on hand. If the email address does not come up, then the script will look for the userid number or username – depending on how the script is programmed to respond.

I cannot stress enough the importance of keeping your payment processor information up-to-date. I have seen payments fail to post to accounts correctly so many times that I have lost count. And then a member is angry because the IPN failed to do its job. The problem with that is that the IPN can only do what it was meant to do, and that is to seek out the account with the information provided by the purchaser. So if you want to be sure that you get what you paid for, it is up to you to either register that new email address on your payment processor, or use your payment processor email to register with programs in which you are likely to make purchases.

This article was written by our own support admin for two of my programs, Catherine Heiter. She works on the backend of Traffic Witch and Viral Traffic Bar, and sees these problems almost every single day. She hopes that the information above might help some of our members to be more knowledgeable and prepared when making purchases online with programs that have the IPN integrated into them.