On the other side of Active Payments Testing, we have Passive Payments Testing. Passive Testing consists of leasing for a rental fee your payment methods to customers so they can complete the orders internally. Strict environments, complex instructions, synchronous tests, and having an existing internal testers base are examples of scenarios where the customer may prefer having local payment methods instead of crowdsourcing the entire testing process.
This article aims to give an overview of this testing opportunity: the typical workflow, answering a few of the most commonly asked questions, and help you start earning money with this exciting opportunity without having to perform any tests or have experience with functional testing in general.
How does the process of leasing a payment method work
In the next subsections, we will give you more details about the steps to participate in our Passive Testing Rewards Program. But before we dive into details, we summarized the flow in the picture below.
How to submit the payment method
You will be invited directly by our CPC to join a recruitment cycle if you match the initial customer requirements, which will include the country of the payment method, the balance necessary, and the payment type. Once you accept the cycle, you will be able to see the available payment methods you can lease. You must then:
Claim one of the available tasks.
Open our Encrypted Test IO Passive Payments platform
Authenticate with your Test IO account
Insert the payment method details and submit it
Notify the team you completed the task
After finishing this process, the customer will receive your payment method and confirm receipt of the details. Once confirmed, they can proceed to test the payment method. Your role will be to assist them by keeping an eye on the payment process. Since you won't be able to use your own payment method during this period, we suggest submitting only accounts or cards that you don't regularly use or need. Alternatively, you can create a new account or request a new card.
Each payment method will be leased to a single customer. That means the same payment method leased by the tester will be never shared between the customers. This helps to minimize the risks and helps you to control the payment method on your side.
How is the payout calculated?
You will be paid an initial bonus once the customer confirms they received your payment method. After that, for every month the customer is leasing your payment method, you will be paid a rental fee as well. The amounts will vary depending on several factors, but you will be informed about all payout rates before sending your payment method, for both the initial bonus and the monthly rental bonus.
Also, all transactions completed by the customer that were not canceled or refunded will be reimbursed. So you will never lose money by participating in this type of test.
What are the tester's responsibilities?
Despite leasing the payment method to the customer, testers are still in control of the accounts and their activities. And since the customer won't have full access to your account, we will need to confirm the transactions made by them. To do that, you will need to participate in a test cycle that will be opened monthly. There, you will submit in the correct area the payment method statement showing all transactions made by the customer that month. But don't worry, we won't ask for your sensitive information in these receipts, as those will only be used to confirm with the customer the non-refunded transactions. Testers must join this monthly cycle to receive their payout and reimbursement correctly.
Besides the mandatory test cycle, testers must NOT use the payment method for any personal purposes during the leasing period. It's also the tester's responsibility to pay for any debts on the payment method made by the customer monthly (which will always be reimbursed later). Finally, you will still be the owner of the payment method, so in case any problems happen with them, you will need to step up and help us solve the issue as quickly as possible.
Note: Any misuse of the payment method by the tester will result in the cancelation of the program.
Is this safe?
Test IO is a leading crowd-testing company since 2011 that was acquired in 2019 by EPAM, a publicly traded technology company. We maintained our high-quality standards and complied with all EPAM's security measures to provide this service to both our customers and testers.
To minimize the risks, we developed an encrypted platform exclusively for this type of test. Once you enter your data into the platform, it will be encrypted and can only be decrypted by our customers. Test IO employees, testers, or Team Leaders will NOT have access to your data at any time, only the customer will be able to see and store it. Once the customer accesses it, the data will be deleted from our servers.
It's the customer's responsibility to maintain the tester's payment methods secure, store them safely, and manage access. As a tester, you won't need to worry though because our customers are all under restrictive contracts and any misuse of the payment methods will be liable of fines and legal actions if necessary.
Since you will only be leasing the payment method to the customer, you will not lose access to the payment method. You can still monitor activity on the payment method and report any problems to our team at any time if you suspect your information has been leaked.
Finally, testers can opt out of the test whenever they want and reclaim the payment methods. Hence, if you don't want to participate anymore in our Passive Testing Reward Program, please contact the CPC of the project and request your removal.
Note: Test IO has a ZERO TOLERANCE for fraud attempts by both the testers and customers. Legal actions will be taken against any attempts of misguiding the program, taking advantage of it, or falsely accusing mistakes in the reimbursements and payout bonuses.
FAQ
Who can participate in the Passive Testing Rewards Program?
Although testers from higher levels will have a preference to be selected for the program, any tester that matches the customer's requirements and has one of the requested payment methods can participate.
I bought something with my card and I'm paying in installments. Can I lease this card and only get reimbursed for the customer expenses?
Unfortunately, no. You will need to pay your card debt in full before leasing it to customers. While being leased to the customer, only transactions made by the customer should be in your card statement.
Can I open a new account or issue a new card just for this program?
Testers are allowed to request or create new payment methods to be used exclusively in the program. However, each recruitment cycle will have a deadline, and if you don't submit the payment method in time, you will lose the spot for another tester. Therefore, we highly recommend you review the instructions as soon as you get an invite and start working on the payment method to avoid losing your spot.
How many payment methods can I lease?
Unless specified in the instructions of a cycle, there are no restrictions about the number of different payment methods one tester can lease to a single customer. Keep in mind you are not allowed to lease the same payment method to two different customers.
Will Test IO or the customer cover the payment methods maintenance fees?
Those fees, usually charged by banks, cards, and e-wallets, are used to keep the payment method active. However, unless specified in the test instructions, all fees related to the payment method itself should be covered by testers. We recommend you only lease payment methods that don't charge any maintenance fees associated with them.
Additional Material
If you want to know more about the Passive Testing Reward Program (and other relevant information about Real Payments in general), please check our Real Payments Webinar on YouTube.