ACPay Mac

Hi, all. I'm looking for advice, so I hope you won't consider this a spam.

Here's the deal. AC Pay is just about ready to start accepting online checks. Processing the checks is no problem, but we have to decide how we're going to deal with declines (which are pretty steep with checks).

Option 1: Let 'em all in if everything looks valid--immediately give the user a Member ID and access to the site they joined. Upside: This keeps people from bailing, reducing abandonment. Downside: This lets in a bunch of people who will later (in one or more days) be declined, and they could download all the content in your paysite for free, effectively, before we boot them.

Option 2: Tell the user up-front that they will get access once their transaction has been approved. This is what we do for AC Gold. Upside: ZERO declines. Downside: You may lose some members who want it now (though if you have an alternative payment mechanism like PayPal, they may just move to that).

Option 3: This would be where you can get creative and suggest something else if you're feeling really crafty.

Allright--I'm off to the "Metal MP3s" thread, because the Slayer CD in my car is a little played out and I need to burn something new.

Thanks a lot!

Cormac