Getting Started With Spreedly - The Most Common Questions

Since it's our mission to remove all possible roadblocks towards a successful implementation, we've created this post to serve as a handy, consolidated guide to getting started with Spreedly:

Let's review these in the order we typically receive them:

When Assessing Spreedly

1. Do I need to pay for every new merchant account I add to Spreedly?

Spreedly bills you based on payment gateway types (e.g. Stripe, AuthorizeNet, etc.); there are no limits on the number of merchant accounts that you can support using a gateway type. For example, you can have twenty merchants connecting to a single payment gateway for $50/month. If you'd like all of those merchants to have access to a second, back-up gateway for redundancy, you would integrate with another gateway and be charged for two payment gateways per month.

2. Do you handle recurring subscriptions/billing?

Spreedly allows you to store your customers’ cards in our PCI Level 1 compliant vault so that you can charge the same card again in the future. In this sense, we support recurring charges. You will, however, need to customize the rules and code around when you want to re-charge the cards. If you're interested in comprehensive subscription management, check out some of
!

3. Will you integrate with my payment gateway?

We are always interested in forming new relationships with payment gateways. Over time, we've realized the best approach to adding a new gateway is to partner directly with them. This way, the relationship between Spreedly and the gateway outlives any one customer. 

when getting started with Spreedly. Here they will learn how to become a Partner Gateway and can provide us with the information about their platform.

Testing & Onboarding

4. I'm evaluating against my gateway test account but it's not working. What am I doing wrong?

Spreedly doesn't support testing against
, however, which runs in a production environment using test data. Over the years, we’ve learned that sandbox environments typically don't provide an accurate depiction of the production environment's behavior.* For this reason, we don't support sandbox testing.

Part of the value we do provide, however, is eliminating the need for you to individually test each gateway that you add. Spreedly has dedicated resources to thoroughly test the integrations you'll be using. Generally speaking, implementing Spreedly is a fairly quick process, but existing customers benefit further by adding new payment gateways with
. Is your go-to gateway experiencing downtime? Just signed up for a back up payment gateway? No problem. Simply create a new gateway token and begin using it in all of your payment transactions. It's that easy!

*Stripe is an exception. It is the only Spreedly supported payment gateway to use the same URL for both test and production.

5. I'm done testing. How can I move to production?

If you're comfortable with your tests and are ready to go live, congratulations! You're ready to activate your account. To guide you from test to production we've created a
in our Help Center. You'll likely still have some questions after activating your account, but don't worry. We have a lot of resources to help you succeed.

6. I already have cards stored with my payment gateway/another third party. What do I need to do to import those cards?

You've got options! We support
. This method allows you to self-manage your import.

For the second, Spreedly imports all of your data at once. We call this the
.

Troubleshooting

7. Do you store the CVV? Do I need to send it on every payment transaction?

We see a lot of questions regarding CVVs, or the security code located on the back of credit cards, when getting started with Spreedly. To clarify, we have summed up everything you need to know in this
! We're happy to answer any additional questions you may have.

8. Why isn't Spreedly sending the correct amount to the gateway in my request?

Spreedly will always expect the amount as an integer. We discuss this in our
. This is true for both fractional and non-fractional (or zero decimal) currencies. On our backend, we ensure the payment gateway will receive the non-fractional currencies properly. This approach allows you to treat all currencies the same on your end and not have to do any conditional currency manipulating.

9. Why did my transaction fail?

We see this question most often when the result of the transaction is gateway_processing_failed or gateway_processing_result_unknown. If this is the case, look at the transcript provided by the payment gateway for any helpful error codes or messages. We provide two ways for you to obtain this information:
.

Because gateway messages are numerous and subject to change without notification, inquiring directly with your payment gateway is necessary if you need more information. We’ve prepared a page in our docs to help walk you through some next steps:


*Remember, when reaching out to troubleshoot an issue, please do NOT share your access secret with Spreedly or with anyone else over insecure channels like email. Find out more
.

10. Where can I find a complete list of errors I can expect?

Complete standardization of error codes is a complex endeavor for Spreedly. This is primarily because the underlying gateway returns most failed payment transactions, and they can vary. Additionally, the underlying processor can also generate payment gateway errors.

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Download the Payments Orchestration eBook Below

New prospects and customers of Spreedly have great questions, and we have some really helpful resources. Despite our thorough documentation, Spreedly's Customer Success team notices patterns amongst the most commonly asked questions.