zero subtotal cart - can I automatically select 'no payment information required'?

Question

I'm on Magento 1.7 and use Magestore's gift-card plugin.

When someone buys something with a gift card, it's possible that the cart total can be zero.

When it does that, it still offers both payment options: "Credit Cards" and "No Payment Information Required" (I've got the "Zero Subtotal Checkout" option enabled.)

Is it possible to:

1. Have the "No Payment" option automatically selected? And/or:

2. Have the "Credit Card" option hidden?

I think the current system is confusing. If the total is zero, defaults should be selected so the user can just skip onward, rather than making the user click things.

Answer 1

Each of the various Credit Card payment methods which Magento includes out-of-the-box include a Minimum Order Total setting. If you set this to a penny (0.01) the method should no longer show up when the value of the cart has a zero subtotal and since there would only be a single payment method now available, it would eliminate the need for the customer to choose one.

Note: I've not tested this, so can't personally say whether or not it will for certain work, but I don't see why it wouldn't. Let me know if it does! :)

Answer 2

Set the sort order for Zero Subtotal Checkout as low as possible (All other active payment methods should have higher values)

Now edit (copy to local) Mage_Checkout_Block_Onepage_Payment_Methods and change the _canUseMethod($method) function like this:

protected function _canUseMethod($method)
{
    if (!$method || !$method->canUseCheckout()) {
        return false;
    }


    if ($method->getCode() == 'free' && parent::_canUseMethod($method)) {
        Mage::register('payment_free_active', true);
    }
    else if (Mage::registry('payment_free_active')) {
        return false;
    }


    return parent::_canUseMethod($method);
}

This should work quite well, as long as you don't forget to sort your payment methods, otherwise the registry value won't be set early enough, and all payment methods with a lower sort order value will still be shown.