31–40 of 41 posts
Can stripe 1st work on reducing their fees? They're just like the incumbents. Only surrounded by more silicon valley sycophants. Taking 2.6%+ of every merchant transaction is nuts.
Wow - I wonder if this is how Bezos felt when he said (paraphrasing) he feared the internet was taking off without him? Stripe Capital is their iPhone moment -- they've learned much from the software payments market, setting up an 'import Financial Foundation,' and now can use their novel data stream to effectively transform business cash flow financing. Capital will be a a beautiful take on an old way of financing (…
Can stripe 1st work on reducing their fees? They're just like the incumbents. Only surrounded by more silicon valley sycophants. Taking 2.6%+ of every merchant transaction is nuts.
What are you comparing this to that makes you think it is nuts? Square's is 2.6% + $0.10 Paypal's is 2.7% Fees directly from the merchant card issuers (Visa, Mastercard, etc) are sometimes lower (ranging from 1.4% - 2.6%, and even 3.5% for AmEx) but Stripe is a service that is on top of those fees , and any merchant will add on top of those fees as well.
The way it works for "the networks" (Visa, Mastercard, Amex) is that they have several "interchange rates" ( https://www.helcim.com/us/pricing/visa-interchange-rates/ ) which vary depending on the risk of the card [transaction].
"Flat fee" card payment providers win by setting an average flat-fee that they believe will be higher than the mixed (average) interchange range of the payers. Also, lower card rates can be obtained capturing what is called "level 2" or "level 3" data ( https://www08.wellsfargomedia.com/assets/pdf/small-business/... ).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Small businesses pay >2.9%+0.30¢ all the time.
Yeah, it's sad to see. There's now no economic reason for these fees to remain so high. I worked at a payment processor.
The way I always think of it is like this: You would NEVER accept to pay to send an email per number of the words in that email, at the end of the day it is just transferring bytes. However the payments industry has been working like that for too long, why does the cost of sending some "money transfer" bytes be a function of the number you are sending? (like, sending $9156 is more expensive to transfer than $100000 bc of compression)
That's why I joined Paystand [1] to do "Payment as a Service". Similarly how you pay a fixed monthly a month to receive emails, you should be able to pay a fixed amount to receive payments (using the Paystand network). Nevertheless, we have to support legacy networks such as Mastercard, VISA or Amex which still charge customers per transaction.
[1] https://venturebeat.com/2020/02/06/paystand-raises-20-millio...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think there’s going to be some reckoning in the payments industry in general, though, in the next 5-10 years. Covid has forced more businesses to go cashless and pay the 3% payment transaction toll, which is a hidden tax we all pay. Could easily see post-recovery legislation scrutinizing payment players who’ve all seen their stock skyrocket this year, similar to what happened after the GFC with the Durbin Amendment…
Roughly 1.8% of a credit transaction fee goes to the bank that issued the card. About 15-30 bps go to the card networks, much higher for cross-border. Acquirer and PSP fees are minimal in comparison. Legislation would be more effective in lowering overall merchant cost by targeting banks and networks.
Stripe, like PayPal, is becoming too fundamental as a layer of our financial infrastructure. One issue I have with them is that they take an aggressive approach to censorship and deplatforming, encoding their political biases into their offerings instead of taking a hands-off pro-free-speech approach. There are many examples of them banning users or organizations who are not aligned with their progressive world view.…
You have examples of this? Are you saying they lean left or right? You have the axe to grind, so I feel like the burden of proof is on you. Your down votes makes me feel like I'm not the only one thinking this way, but without evidence to back up your claims... Your throwaway account is also very chickenshit-esque.
I should also note, that I don't actually use Gab and don't follow these particular conservatives that Stripe kicked off their platform. However, I think free speech is a fundamentally important principle to uphold, particularly at the base layers of society. Payment processing is in reality a function that should just be a public utility (and therefore subject to constitutional free speech protection). When a cabal of banks and other payment systems (PayPal, Stripe) can be targeted/pressured to deplatform someone, and even act in coordination (as Visa/MasterCard have many times), the victims of their action effectively lose their right to free speech for all practical purposes.
This opaque, arbitrary process of judging who is allowed and not allowed on their platform also raises questions as to whether Stripe can be trusted as a stable foundation to build a business on. For example, if I am a business owner and I make donations to Republican candidates, will I now have to think about whether Stripe will suddenly block me? And with Stripe moving from service customers to enabling customers of their customers, does their political judgment also extend to indirect customers? I don't want to lend more platform power to PayPal 2.0 - Stripe needs to get away from political activism and come out in support of being hands-off except for what the law minimally requires.
> Your throwaway account is also very chickenshit-esque
Regarding my account...I am not sure why that is relevant. The name has 'throwaway' in it but this is my only account.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You have examples of this? Are you saying they lean left or right? You have the axe to grind, so I feel like the burden of proof is on you. Your down votes makes me feel like I'm not the only one thinking this way, but without evidence to back up your claims... Your throwaway account is also very chickenshit-esque.
There are many examples of Stripe leaning left, in terms of who they are deplatforming. They tend to take action whenever facing activist pressure from random people/organizations on Twitter like the "Sleeping Giants" group. From a quick Google search, here is an example I turned up, where Stripe discussed deplatforming Gab with activists directly - those activists then demanded Stripe change their TOS, and threatene…
I’ve moved on to Square this year. They’ve been moving quite fast to shore up their online payment platform.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are many examples of Stripe leaning left, in terms of who they are deplatforming. They tend to take action whenever facing activist pressure from random people/organizations on Twitter like the "Sleeping Giants" group. From a quick Google search, here is an example I turned up, where Stripe discussed deplatforming Gab with activists directly - those activists then demanded Stripe change their TOS, and threatene…
Did you seriously just use a Breitbart link for proof? I think that's all the proof that I needed. Not for the actual question at hand, but it definitely answered a lot more.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Roughly 1.8% of a credit transaction fee goes to the bank that issued the card. About 15-30 bps go to the card networks, much higher for cross-border. Acquirer and PSP fees are minimal in comparison. Legislation would be more effective in lowering overall merchant cost by targeting banks and networks.
Any idea how much of that 1.8% that issuing banks charge goes back to cardholders in the form of rewards and cash back?