In most cases it doesn't make sense to artificially lower your signup rates like that, except if your onboarding process is very costly. If that's the case then your focus should be on lowering these costs, or focus on better acquisition (you're spending marketing dollars attracting the wrong crowd), and not on shooting yourself in the foot by adding unnecessary friction.
Putting a CC up front doesn't make your prospects value the service more, it gives them a higher barrier to cross in terms of trust. You need a well-recognized brand to be able to make it work IMO. Some people are just not comfortable giving their credit card if they don't know you.
Also, check the references I quote in the blog post, according to the studies conducted by Totango, requiring a CC upfront results in lower end-to-end conversion rates.
I will instead to a test for a week or two, without CC info, but with an in-person onboard when possible (unless overloaded), and most likely share that back on HN.
I currently offer a "one-hour free cash flow coaching session" via ScreenHero or Skype etc.
What I do in that hour largely depends on the newcomer: sometimes it will be more on the features themselves (when the user is already cash flow proficient), most of the time I underline the benefits that are not necessarily obvious and require "education" (eg: mastering cash flow translates into ability to reduce your work load, make time to build a saas product, reduce pressure, schedule purchases, take holidays, realize that you could work less - or more etc).
I can also finetune depending on the country of the new user, understand their real underlying needs etc.
I've also started a newsletter/blog to "educate" people (I don't like that world too much) https://www.wisecashhq.com/blog and it works decently, because some mention the blog during the coaching session.
So this is what I do so far :-)
I'm working more at "optimizing the funnel" than looking for coverage, because I'm in the learning phase.
It turns out that those "coaching sessions" bring a lot of value not only to the new WiseCash user, but as well for me, in terms of customer development, understanding the needs, and figuring out what I will say on my homepage later.
Putting a CC up front doesn't make your prospects value the service more, it gives them a higher barrier to cross in terms of trust. You need a well-recognized brand to be able to make it work IMO. Some people are just not comfortable giving their credit card if they don't know you.
Also, check the references I quote in the blog post, according to the studies conducted by Totango, requiring a CC upfront results in lower end-to-end conversion rates.
Check also http://www.quora.com/Conversion-Optimization/In-what-scenari... , there are good answers that elaborate on this.