Payments
Open Collective supports a number of payment options for contributors.
Last updated
Open Collective supports a number of payment options for contributors.
Last updated
With the implementation of the new Dashboard interface, we are currently in the process of updating our documentation and some pages may be out of date. Thank you for your patience. Please contact our support team if you need any assistance.
Payment options available to you will depend upon:
the collective you are contributing to,
the amount you are looking to contribute,
the type of contribution you are making (single or recurring)
the currency you are donating in, and
the location you are donating from
Contributing to a collective involves three steps:
Confirm the amount of the contribution
Select the contributor who is making the contribution
Select the payment method
You can contribute to a Collective using your personal profile or the profile of any Organization or Collective you are an admin of.
You can also contribute anonymously by making an incognito contribution. If you chose to contribute as "incognito", your financial contribution will not show up publicly linked to your profile. However, administrators can privately see which profiles are attached to incognito contributions.
You can find the option to donate incognito (anonymously) on the second step of the contributions page:
Saved payment methods - select a payment method that you've previously saved on Open Collective
Credit card - add your credit card information
Other payment providers (Paypal, Google Pay, Apple Pay etc) - select a payment method and authorise using your platform-specific service.
ACH 'wire' or SEPA 'direct debit' transfers - select or add your bank's details and authorise a transfer from your bank account.
Collective - contribute using the balance of one of your Collectives (if it's in the same host as the one you're donating to)
Organization - contribute using the balance saved to your Organization
Bank transfer, if made available by that Collective and their fiscal host.
Payment Processing times Payment methods that require direct authorisation with your bank (ACH, SEPA, BACS) can take up to two weeks to complete. Your contributions will be marked as 'processing'; we will email you once the payment has been processed and credited to the Collective.
Cancelling a bank transfer If you don't make a bank transfer, the pending order will expire after two months and no further action is required.
It helps Collectives manage their monthly budget and is more predictable for them. We're working on a way to charge a single payment spread out across monthly contributions, to reduce payment processor transaction fees.
You will be charged when you first contribute, and then on the 1st of each month (for monthly contributions) or the 1st of the same month next year (for yearly contributions). Note: To prevent you from being charged twice in a short time frame, if you contribute after the 15th of a given month, the next charge will not be the 1st of next month but the month after.
If you start the contribution flow (ie. http://opencollective.com/babel/donate) while being logged out, the system will allow you to continue without signing in/up, just by providing your email address. Note that guest accounts are not automatically anonymous- you need to not put your name in under "Full Name," i.e. write "guest" or "anonymous," otherwise it will show up along with the transaction. For information about submitting a contribution anonymously (incognito) if you already have an Open Collective profile, see above.
Above a certain amount, the system will ask you additional information such as your physical address. This information is required for legal purpose, and stays private.
There are two ways to claim a guest account:
You'll then get an email to register on Open Collective. Click on the given link and your account will be verified!
Sign in directly by clicking on the "Sign in" button in the top navbar will have the same effect of verifying your account directly.
To view your current contributions, go to your profile (under 'my account') and click 'edit profile', then 'manage contributions'.
Make sure you are logged in, then click on your profile in the top right-hand corner
This should open the dropdown menu next to your profile avatar. Click on Manage Contributions.
You'll be redirected to a page with all of your recurring financial contributions. Click on the edit button at the bottom of the financial contribution card to update your payment method, amount or cancel.
Note that contributions using some payment methods (such as ACH and SEPA) do not support changes. If you wish to change a recurring contribution make using these methods please cancel and create a new contribution instead.
Click on your user profile in the top right-hand corner
Click on settings, then 'payment methods'
3. Click on remove - If your card has active recurring contributions, you'll need to cancel them before you can remove your payment method. To add a credit card: Click on add a credit card at the bottom.
Note: Adding a new card does not change the card for existing recurring contributions.
4. Otherwise, just click "Remove" then "Ok"
Refunds are approved and processed by the fiscal hosts subject to their terms and conditions. Please contact our team with details about your refund request, the amount, the date the transaction occurred and a link to the collective and we will pass your query along to the right fiscal host.
Open Source Collective Refund Policy
To comply with banking regulations, we may have to ask financial contributors to verify their credit cards. This mainly occurs in Europe but is being deployed across more countries. In Europe, the policy is named Strong Customer Authentication. 3D Secure is the most common way of authenticating an online card payment, which asks you to confirm the payment through your phone, banking app, or dedicated device.
While processing recurring contributions, contributors whose credit cards need confirmation will receive an email looking like this:
Click on the "Verify my credit card" button, then you'll be redirected to https://opencollective.com where you may have to sign in with your email address if you're not already. Finally, a prompt with the confirmation page of your bank will appear (the way it will look will depend on your bank):
Screenshot to be added
What will happen if I don't verify my credit card?
If you don't verify your credit card, we will not be able to process your recurring payment. We will retry in the coming days, then after 6 attempts, your recurring contribution will be cancelled.
Why does it fail when I try to verify my credit card? Make sure you turn extensions such as ad blockers off and that your browser is up-to-date. Some errors can also originate from the bank verification services not working correctly. If everything else fails, feel free to contact us.
