How to create/manage a group contribution to pay for a service

[Riccarr]

Hello,

Sorry is this is a frequent/old topic, I couldn't find anything specifically so I thought I'd ask.

It must be a common theme for a group of people to what to contribute and share in the cost of an online service that they (as a group) all use. For example, renting a chat/voice talk service that they use.

How, or can, paypal be used such that each person could be contributing towards the total monthly rental fee. Say the fee is $30, it would be ideal if multiple people could opt in to contribute anywhere from a couple dollars on up, on a monthly basis.

What would be the strategy for organizing something like this?

My first thought would be simple that one person has to be the "renter", the person who pays the monthly rental cost. Then other people merely pay the renter. They could opt in to pay when they want, or could set up recurring monthly payment to the renter (can they do that?).  It would be spotty if people had to always come and make their monthly payment contribution.

Is there a more formalize automated approach?

This seems like a regular activity I would be surprised if paypal has not created a specific "shared" service for exactly such an activity. If not, they should be.

Thanks for any tips or comments.

Cheers,

Eric

[skier]

You should only have one point of contact where as you one person who takes ownership to ensure that all funds are collected and the rent is paid.   It's totally not business wise to try to setup something whereas you have different amounts coming from various people unless you have someone to manage the situation.   If I was the person who owned and rented the property, I would only want to deal with 1 point of contact.   Note, there are no built in PayPal features or options for managing a scenario of this nature.

Regards,

skier