Does Calendly/Stripe vault credit cards? Want to charge for no-shows w/o refundable booking fee.

Hey there @Supernova -- thanks for your post!

The simple answer here is “no” -- once a payment is made and processed, Calendly does not have anything to do with it from there. 

We have integrations with both Stripe and PayPal. You can connect your Stripe or PayPal account to Calendly to collect payments when your invitees schedule with you. If you don't use these services, you could add a custom link to your confirmation page that leads to your preferred payment provider. You could also customize your invitee notification emails to include that link!

That said -- our PayPal and Stripe integrations do not go beyond that payment collection, and the payment is processed + maintained by PayPal/Stripe (whichever you are using on an event type). All refunds, issues with payments and so on need to be addressed with those platforms for this reason.

I hope this is helpful clarification! 

Hi Kelsi,

I understand payment is processed through Stripe or Paypal. Stripe will vault cards (Paypal won’t) but if the functionality isn’t in Calendly I’m not sure it matters what Stripe can do. If that makes sense?

This feature exists in Acuity, but I really don’t love their UX. If I can go with Cal, I’d prefer it. Any definitive answers would be great!

Hey again @Supernova -- thanks for the clarification! Sorry about my own confusion regarding your original ask. 😅

I looked into this + spoke with a colleague about your post to make sure I was tracking. 

To double-down on that: what exactly would you be hoping to make sure to see happen with “vaulting” as a feature? 

Calendly does not vault any CC information, as Calendly does not store any payment information used by invitees paying to book with Calendly users (all of this is done via the payment provider’s platform, be that Stripe or PayPal -- though I do understand you say PayPal does not offer this feature while Stripe does). 

💡That said, something that my colleague thought to point out:

• Let’s say an invitee books via your Calendly booking page 
• The invitee must pay upfront via your Stripe or PayPal payment collection (settings within each individual event type can be either/or)
• If they then decide to cancel the meeting you already have the payment in your Stripe account
• You (the Calendly user) are in charge of manually processing any form of refund that an invitee might be due if a booking is cancelled
• Because Calendly does not process refunds or any other form of payment, the “vaulted” card would not come into play (if this were the context that you were referring to -- it’s an example we came up with in order to discuss with you further, but might be off the mark entirely!)

I did look up the “Vault and Forward” feature on Stripe’s API Endpoint Documentation. Is this what you would be hoping to do? If not, what would your end goal be if “vaulting” were possible? I can tell you with certainty that Calendly does not have this feature with any of our payment integrations, but, depending on what goals you have regarding the feature’s core abilities, I might be able to offer insight + information (potentially involving our own open API) that could help lead you in the direction of meeting that goal (whatever it may be!). 

Looking forward to hearing back from you! 🤓

I appreciate you looking into this!

what exactly would you be hoping to make sure to see happen with “vaulting” as a feature?

Let me try to make it as simple as possible with a real life example: when I book an appointment to get my hair cut, I’m asked for a credit card and given a cancellation policy. Nothing is charged to my card at the time of the booking but If I don’t cancel within 24 hours of my appointment, or don’t show up for it at all, the card I provided during the booking process will then be charged for X amount (as described in cancellation policy). If I keep the appointment as scheduled, my card is not charged for anything.

This is what I want to do.

I understand Calendly does not deal directly with payments, hence integration with stripe/paypal. I also know that Stripe will do exactly what I described on the back end for appointments scheduled using Acuity’s platform (they call it “vaulting”). 

If the use case above isn’t possible, I’ll have to use Acuity but I’m really trying not to 😑

thanks!

Hey there again, @Supernova - I appreciate you breaking that down for me. Truly.

With that, I can reiterate with certainty for you the fact that Calendly does not vault card information + the fact that invitees must pay whatever price tag you have set up on your event type at the time of booking, be that via PayPal or Stripe. 

I’m sorry to have to tell you, and wish I had different news! I will definitely champion this feedback for you and make sure our product team puts their eyes on it in the monthly report, though I cannot make promises at all about if or when you might see updates to our payment integrations and their features.

All that said -- if you are working with a developer or can be, our API is open and we often see users like you build out their own solutions to things like this (while I am not the expert to offer advice on that specific front). You can also post in our API + Webhook Help forum if you’d like to ask our developer support experts more directly how you might be able to go about this. I will put their eyes on this post, too -- @Austin is often super insightful, for one! Perhaps he’ll chime in. 

We would also prefer you not have to head over to Acuity, just yet. 😉

I hope you have a nice night! 

Thanks Kelsi, I appreciate the clarification/confirmation. Unfortunately, it’s not worth custom dev when Acuity already offers the feature. Sub-par UX be damned, it meets the need 😐

It’s a fairly standard practice, so hopefully Calendly will get on board. I can think of half a dozen appointments I’ve personally made in the last few months that have asked for a card in event of no-show. Not charging prior to services rendered feels much better on the user end, and not having to refund a deposit (or factor it into a later sale) is sooooooo much cleaner on the business end.

FWIW, I know a handful of Acuity users who would much rather be using Calendly but also need this functionality.

Thanks again!

Hey again @Supernova -- I really do hear you regarding the feature. I promise. 

There was a recent topic here in community, actually, that involved several of us discussing different appointments IRL for which we were asked CC info upon booking in the case of us no-showing or cancelling within a specific window. Hair salons, tattoo shops, personal trainers -- there definitely seems to be a theme (people providing skilled professional/creative services) and I agree with the policies they all have in place, myself! 

I will make sure your feedback is included in our monthly report. I wish that I could magically wave my hand and “poof” this feature into existence for y’all right now, though, trust me!

I hope that you have a good day. 🤗

there definitely seems to be a theme (people providing skilled professional/creative services)

Bingo! Me & those I know are all photographers :)