title: Paypal Recurring Payment Profile- Immediate Access
body: <p>I have set up a recurring payments profile using the Express Checkout API following <a href="https://developer.paypal.com/webapps/developer/docs/classic/express-checkout/ht_ec-recurringPaymentProfile-curl-etc/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">these steps</a>.</p>
  
  <p>In my sandbox merchant &amp; user accounts I see that the payments profile has <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/31sewzgwauhw5m9/paypal-recurring-payment-question.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer">been created</a>, but no money has been sent and the profile is still in the "pending" state. <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/31sewzgwauhw5m9/paypal-recurring-payment-question.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer">See screenshot</a>. </p>
  
  <p>It is a subscription to a website, and I want to give the user immediate access. I could grant access to my website immediately when a profile is set up, but then a user could cancel the profile before the payment goes through and gain free temporary access to my site.</p>
  
  <p>Alternatively, I could wait until the profile updates to "active" to grant access, but this <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/a/18840826/528263">may take many hours</a> and I want to give the customer access as soon as possible. </p>
  
  <p>How is a digital subscription like this usually handled? Should I be using a different Paypal service? Can I somehow speed up the initial transaction so that the initial payment is processed immediately instead of waiting a few hours? Or is it common practise to "not worry" about the potential of malicious users stealing a few free hours access?</p>