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Stripe refunds: fees from the original charge are not returned

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Re: Stripe refunds: fees from the original charge are not returned

#21

Post by Marsymars »

sergiotapia wrote: post #7
edwinwee wrote: post #5

Some more context: this has been around for a couple years (for only new Stripe users). Payments are costing more to process. Card network fees have been gradually increasing over the years. Stripe has kept this at bay for its longtime users for as long as we could, even as it's been getting more expensive. But with the water rising across the whole pond, we sadly have to start charging for some of these things.

Why are payments costing more? Isn't technology lowering costs more and more for these companies? Is this just execs needing another summer home so they raise the prices to whatever they like?

AFAIK payments are only really costing more in the US. Europe, Australia, Canada have all regulated or negotiated lower interchange rates in the past years.

Re: Stripe refunds: fees from the original charge are not returned

#22

Post by acvny »

edwinwee wrote: post #5

Some more context: this has been around for a couple years (for only new Stripe users). Payments are costing more to process. Card network fees have been gradually increasing over the years. Stripe has kept this at bay for its longtime users for as long as we could, even as it's been getting more expensive. But with the water rising across the whole pond, we sadly have to start charging for some of these things.

Bullshit. How are transfers costing more?

Re: Stripe refunds: fees from the original charge are not returned

#23

Post by Marsymars »

intopieces wrote: post #8

Seems reasonable to me. The payment was successful, which is the service Stripe provides. Is this out of step with the industry at large?

It's standard from the consumer side that I see. If you return an item purchased with a foreign currency on a credit card with a forex fee, the forex fee isn't refunded.

Re: Stripe refunds: fees from the original charge are not returned

#24

Post by frank086 »

My expectation has long been for Stripe to bring in more and higher fees. They offer a lot of top shelf free tooling that either brings their models into your code or moves the bookkeeping up to their system entirely, ex subscriptions.

Smart companies have their own bookkeeping system in house and thus can potentially negotiate better terms with Stripe, assuming they are big enough Stripe cares to retain them. Plenty of other places are looking at massive costs to move off Stripe and I am sure someone at Stripe is aware of that.

The first hit is always free.

Re: Stripe refunds: fees from the original charge are not returned

#25

Post by [deleted] »

sergiotapia wrote: post #7
edwinwee wrote: post #5

Some more context: this has been around for a couple years (for only new Stripe users). Payments are costing more to process. Card network fees have been gradually increasing over the years. Stripe has kept this at bay for its longtime users for as long as we could, even as it's been getting more expensive. But with the water rising across the whole pond, we sadly have to start charging for some of these things.

Why are payments costing more? Isn't technology lowering costs more and more for these companies? Is this just execs needing another summer home so they raise the prices to whatever they like?

[deleted]

Re: Stripe refunds: fees from the original charge are not returned

#26

Post by ValentineC »

edwinwee wrote: post #5

Some more context: this has been around for a couple years (for only new Stripe users). Payments are costing more to process. Card network fees have been gradually increasing over the years. Stripe has kept this at bay for its longtime users for as long as we could, even as it's been getting more expensive. But with the water rising across the whole pond, we sadly have to start charging for some of these things.

Do the banks and network still charge the full fee if a transaction is refunded?

Re: Stripe refunds: fees from the original charge are not returned

#27

Post by Trias11 »

With more competition coming into marketplace the costs of transactions inevitably goes down.

Charging more for transactions (in either direction) has nothing to do with "payments are costing more to process" lie.

This has everything to do with hook-and-charge business approach relying on majority of customers swallowing the arbitrary higher costs because it's more hassles to switch provider, especially for non-technical business owners.

Re: Stripe refunds: fees from the original charge are not returned

#28

Post by Rafert »

sergiotapia wrote: post #7
edwinwee wrote: post #5

Some more context: this has been around for a couple years (for only new Stripe users). Payments are costing more to process. Card network fees have been gradually increasing over the years. Stripe has kept this at bay for its longtime users for as long as we could, even as it's been getting more expensive. But with the water rising across the whole pond, we sadly have to start charging for some of these things.

Why are payments costing more? Isn't technology lowering costs more and more for these companies? Is this just execs needing another summer home so they raise the prices to whatever they like?

Costs might be lowering but not necessarily the fees charged: https://www.pymnts.com/visa/2020/report-visa-eyes-biggest-in...

Re: Stripe refunds: fees from the original charge are not returned

#29

Post by brunoTbear »

Trias11 wrote: post #27

With more competition coming into marketplace the costs of transactions inevitably goes down. Charging more for transactions (in either direction) has nothing to do with "payments are costing more to process" lie. This has everything to do with hook-and-charge business approach relying on majority of customers swallowing the arbitrary higher costs because it's more hassles to switch provider, especially for non-techn…

I think you don’t understand the card ecosystem particularly well.

My impression (ex Stripe with no inside knowledge) is that Visa has been raising rates. Stripe are doing their best to avoid passing it on. This is one place where it surely became egregious not to.

I’ve never seen a company as averse to squeezing users as I had when I was there. The finance guy I worked with produced analysis for the team showing ways to reduce pricing more often than ways to increase it.

Your skepticism is warranted against most businesses. From my experience as a PM at Stripe, it is unwarranted in this case.

Disclosure: ex Stripe, own stock. No inside knowledge.

Re: Stripe refunds: fees from the original charge are not returned

#30

Post by chrishynes »

This is pretty standard for flat pricing nowadays, but hits certain types of merchants really hard.

It's a double whammy when you have a cancellation and have to refund and then lose 3% on top of that. Stripe should keep the fixed fee, sure, but keeping interchange doesn't seem right.

Why doesn't Stripe offer the option to do simple interchange+ pricing to all instead of restricting that option to 6 figure volume accounts with negotiated agreements?

That would cleanly solve the issue and be fair on both sides.

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