[rubeng]

I've tried both ways and saw an immediate increase in paid conversions when asking for cc info upfront (8x increase). I've talked to several founders that have tried both ways and all but one saw a significant increase as well. The number of trial accounts is lower of course.

Another benefit is that you can add a required textbox to ask for cancellation feedback when someone cancels. The feedback you get is awesome.

That said, you may get different results so it's worth testing. For something this important you'll want to let the data help you decide instead of relying on what others are doing.