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Stripe increases price for business in the European Economic Area

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Re: Stripe increases price for business in the European Economic Area

#31

Post by petesergeant »

> premium cards [are] commercial, corporate, or business cards issued by Visa and Mastercard [and attract more expensive fees, even compared to Amex]

Does anyone know more about that? Why are they more expensive? Is there a different underlying cost structure, or simply price discrimination by some intermediary?

There's more information on "premium cards" here[0], but it doesn't explain the price difference or why a separate category is needed.

0: https://support.stripe.com/questions/what-s-the-difference-b...

Re: Stripe increases price for business in the European Economic Area

#32

Post by kzrdude »

smeagull wrote: post #8
jon-wood wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not even slightly how it works, and your interpretation is correct, so long as the customer has consented then you're fine. The issue with Google Fonts and Analytics is that the customer has very rarely consented to tracking (particularly with fonts), and in a great many cases even where there is a "I consent to tracking cookies" dialog the cookies were dropped before it was displayed.

Sick of those stupid dialogs.

Yes, I can't believe we've created a system where those are the norm. But we also have real world cities plastered with billboards, so it's not like everything is clean, perfect and rational in our worlds.

Re: Stripe increases price for business in the European Economic Area

#33

Post by Traubenfuchs »

reisse wrote: post #15

I don't know how Stripe can justify these pricing, except for "oh we can extract more money, let's do that!". In other (non-Western) countries pricing for local payment systems can be less than half of what Stripe charges, e. g. Alipay (one of the biggest Chinese payment services) charges about 0.55% merchant fee without per-transaction cost.

The old rules of supply and demand, competition and vendor lock in?

As long as they do not lose customers / don‘t miss out on new customers, it was the right decision.

Re: Stripe increases price for business in the European Economic Area

#34

Post by PeterisP »

QuarterReptile wrote: post #17
reisse wrote: post #15

I don't know how Stripe can justify these pricing, except for "oh we can extract more money, let's do that!". In other (non-Western) countries pricing for local payment systems can be less than half of what Stripe charges, e. g. Alipay (one of the biggest Chinese payment services) charges about 0.55% merchant fee without per-transaction cost.

Why don't Stripe customers shift to Alipay? I don't know anything about the service, but that seems like a pretty straightforward win, if they're as similar as you suggest.

The key part of the parent comment was 'local payment systems' - that rate is for Alipay payments from China-issued payment instruments, it's not for accepting Visa or Mastercard. It wouldn't be enough for Stripe customers (merchants) to switch to a cheaper payment system, the actual consumers would have to do it as well.

Re: Stripe increases price for business in the European Economic Area

#35

Post by abm53 »

bjackman wrote: post #10

I have been pondering transaction costs lately. Seems like this is an area where intervention could have massive impact: these costs are effectively a tax that incurs deadweight loss so according to prevailing economic theory if we can reduce it the whole economy should be catalysed. IIUC governments already introduce price caps for certain elements of this market but I think we could be doing more? Like mandating in…

On the other hand, transaction networks clearly add massive value, so it’s very likely that net of fees (without which the network may not exist at all) these networks still add value.

So it’s more a question of finding the optimal equilibrium rather than viewing fees as “deadweight”.

Re: Stripe increases price for business in the European Economic Area

#36

Post by switch007 »

reisse wrote: post #15

I don't know how Stripe can justify these pricing, except for "oh we can extract more money, let's do that!". In other (non-Western) countries pricing for local payment systems can be less than half of what Stripe charges, e. g. Alipay (one of the biggest Chinese payment services) charges about 0.55% merchant fee without per-transaction cost.

Everyone is increasing prices in Europe. Inflation in the UK is crazy. I'm standing in my local coffee place and a basic Americano went up £0.50 overnight

It's crazy and a lot of gouging is happening (not so much these smaller companies. They do have it tough. The owner does drive an expensive BMW though)

Re: Stripe increases price for business in the European Economic Area

#37

Post by sgjohnson »

that_guy_iain wrote: post #14
TekMol wrote: post #3

How can Europeans use Stripe when they can't use Google Fonts and Google Analytics on the grounds that sending even a single IP packet to a server under the control of a US company violates the GDPR?

In theory, they can't. But no one is enforcing it because there is a plan to change the law.

No. Technically it's illegal to provide such service, not receive it.

Fun fact, this very website is not GDPR compliant. I've never ever seen a cookie notice on HN, which is legally required.

Of course, none of this is relevant, because AFAIK HN has no physical presence in the EU, but still, this site is not GDPR compliant, which just outlines how stupid GDPR actually is.

Re: Stripe increases price for business in the European Economic Area

#38

Post by yywwbbn »

puzzlingcaptcha wrote: post #23
reisse wrote: post #15

I don't know how Stripe can justify these pricing, except for "oh we can extract more money, let's do that!". In other (non-Western) countries pricing for local payment systems can be less than half of what Stripe charges, e. g. Alipay (one of the biggest Chinese payment services) charges about 0.55% merchant fee without per-transaction cost.

Higher costs of compliance in the EU perhaps?

Fees in the EU tend to be considerably lower than in the US

Re: Stripe increases price for business in the European Economic Area

#39

Post by Symbiote »

petesergeant wrote: post #31

> premium cards [are] commercial, corporate, or business cards issued by Visa and Mastercard [and attract more expensive fees, even compared to Amex] Does anyone know more about that? Why are they more expensive? Is there a different underlying cost structure, or simply price discrimination by some intermediary? There's more information on "premium cards" here[0], but it doesn't explain the price difference or why a…

The EU regulation limiting card transaction fees does not apply to corporate cards or foreign cards.

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/EN/legal-content/summary/fees-for-...

Re: Stripe increases price for business in the European Economic Area

#40

Post by parminya »

smeagull wrote: post #8
jon-wood wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not even slightly how it works, and your interpretation is correct, so long as the customer has consented then you're fine. The issue with Google Fonts and Analytics is that the customer has very rarely consented to tracking (particularly with fonts), and in a great many cases even where there is a "I consent to tracking cookies" dialog the cookies were dropped before it was displayed.

Sick of those stupid dialogs.

Me too, I wish the companies would obey the law without putting in the consent banner. It's not like there's any law obliging them to put in the consent banners. They freely chose to piss us all off even though they had the alternative of behaving like perfectly profitable pre-internet businesses and ... not tracking us.
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