Refundable Security Deposits
Charge an additional amount as a security deposit (or 'bond') to protect the value of your Products
PreviousPart-Payments / Down-paymentsNextDamage Fees, Late Fees & Non-return Fees (Security Authorisation)
Last updated
Charge an additional amount as a security deposit (or 'bond') to protect the value of your Products
Last updated
Some businesses may want or expect customers to pay money up front to cover the value (or part of the value) of the Products they're renting. This is just in case the items are damaged, lost or stolen. If there are no issues, then the customer would receive that money back.
We call that a Refundable Security Deposit. It's also often referred to as a rental bond or security bond.
Product Rentals Pro has specific functionality to cater for this, under Add-Ons - Deposits
In a nutshell, the Deposits section within PRP settings allows you to:
Automatically add an additional product to Cart whenever a particular rental product is added.
Prevent customers from removing that additional product from the Cart, so long as the original rental product is still in the Cart.
Show customers a custom message on the PRP Rental Widget, whenever another product will automatically be added to cart with it.
You must ensure your Terms & Conditions relating to the refund of the Security Deposit are clear and easily found by the customer. You should clearly explain the reasons why a customer might not get all or some of their Security Deposit back, and the amounts that apply in various scenarios. It is recommended you get explicit consent by asking customers to tick a box confirming they accept the terms. This can be done on the Product page as a , or before Checkout, using one of many apps on the Shopify App Store, such as "R Terms & Conditions".
To set up a Refundable Security Deposit, you can follow these steps:
Create a Product in Shopify to represent the Refundable Security Deposit. You can name it whatever you like. Set the price to the amount you want the deposit to be. If you'll be using varying deposit amounts for different rental products, or groups of rental products, you can either create different Refundable Security Deposit products, or just use one and set different price points using Variants.
Go to Product Rentals Pro > Settings > Add-Ons > Deposits, and click Add Deposit.
Enter a Deposit Name. The name should represent the grouping of rental products that you'll be applying the Refundable Security Deposit to.
Tick, Display info at the bottom of the PRP Rental Widget
The Text to display in PRP Rental Widget field appears. Enter a message you want customers to see on the Product page of the rental product, so they're aware about the requirement for a Refundable Security Deposit. E.g. This item requires a $500 refundable security deposit to be paid at Checkout. This will be automatically added to your Cart. This may be used to cover damages or other penalty fees in accordance with our . If there are no issues, this will be fully refunded to you upon the item's safe return.
Select the Security Deposit Product that you created in Step 1. If you created Variants, then select the Variant that will be applied to the group of rental products you will select to be part of this Deposit.
Choose a method for selecting rental products that the Security Deposit Product/Variant selected above will be allocated to. You can either apply it to All rental products, Selected products/variants or use rules to determine the products that it's applied to, by specifying Collections, price thresholds or various other attributes.
Once complete, save the Deposit.
If not done already, ensure the is enabled and the is enabled. This is what will prevent the Refundable Security Deposit from being removed from Cart whilst the rental product is still in the Cart, and also ensure it is removed if the rental product is removed.
Now, if you go to the rental product's page on your website, then select rental dates in the calendar of the PRP Rental Widget, your message entered in Step 5 above should appear above your Add To Cart button (labelled "Rent Now" by default).
After clicking Rent Now, both the rental product and the Refundable Security Deposit should appear in the Cart, like the example below:
Attempts to remove the Refundable Security Deposit from Cart will be automatically blocked. If the rental product is removed from Cart, the Refundable Security Deposit will also be removed automatically a few seconds later.
