It is really annoying. After waiting for a month for all the bank details to finally update our temporary accounts it turns out there is no easy way to provide recurring payment (abonement payment) with PayPal, Amazon or Google.
- PayPal: "Dankeschön für Ihr Interesse an Abonnement-Diensten, die Sie über PayPal realisieren möchten. Eine entsprechende Funktion können wir jedoch derzeit nicht für den deutschen Markt bereitstellen.", in English: "Thank you for your interest of our PayPal abonement services. We currently cannot provide such a function in Germany."
- Amazon Europe does not even provide that feature and the seller portal seems to be different from the US Amazon Seller page. Trying to register with Amazon Payment in Europe will result in an email a month later that you are not allowed to use the service if selling digital goods, wtf!
- Google Wallet Seller Account (previously Google Checkout) does not even allow to sell anything in Germany, only in US, UK and via Google Play
There are obviously other choices selling directly to the customer, but that is a lot of overhead and we don't think many people will trust a new Startup to enter their credit card number ..
So the only good choice left is to create US Accounts (where are many more services available too).
- Update 2012-10-15: Switched to FastSpring:
We have now switched to a complete provider that does everything for us and supports PayPal just fine. We use FastSpring now and I am still amazed by the simplicity and everything works out fine for now (callbacks, setup, testing). They obviously want more money (about 4-5% more than going through PayPal), but for us it is worth it as we don't have to worry about all the stupid issues PayPal, Amazon and Google put in place to make digital business an impossibility with them in Germany.