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Stripe increases fees for EU and UK-based businesses in April

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Re: Stripe increases fees for EU and UK-based businesses in April

#41

Post by silon42 »

orangepanda wrote: post #23
lotsofpulp wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> SEPA in EU is already something but it is taking ages for it to become an actual payment platform in everyday's life. Is there anything stopping merchants from offering different prices to people based on different payment methods? I assume the reason merchants do not list a discount for paying via SEPA or ACH or debit card or whatever local non credit card (and non Visa/Amex/MC) option, is because merchants benefi…

> Traders in the EU are not allowed to charge you extra for using your credit or debit card. https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/pri...

But I think that goes with the card fee limit of 0.2-0.3% if I remember correctly.

Re: Stripe increases fees for EU and UK-based businesses in April

#42

Post by capableweb »

olau wrote: post #40
capableweb wrote: post #4

Some European alternatives you might be able to find/negotiate better fees with: - mollie (Netherlands) - adyen (Netherlands) - Klarna (Sweden) - Paylike (Denmark) - Mangopay (Luxembourg) - Quickpay (Denmark) (added in edit) The ones I've tried of those, have an OK development experience, maybe not as polished as Stripe, but much better than the alternatives that were around before Stripe (huge hassle back then). Ide…

Now that you mention a Danish one, Quickpay (Denmark) has been around for a long time.

Thanks, added that one to the list as well :)

Re: Stripe increases fees for EU and UK-based businesses in April

#43

Post by LatteLazy »

capableweb wrote: post #4

Some European alternatives you might be able to find/negotiate better fees with: - mollie (Netherlands) - adyen (Netherlands) - Klarna (Sweden) - Paylike (Denmark) - Mangopay (Luxembourg) - Quickpay (Denmark) (added in edit) The ones I've tried of those, have an OK development experience, maybe not as polished as Stripe, but much better than the alternatives that were around before Stripe (huge hassle back then). Ide…

Devils advocate: is dis-incentivises businesses that causes a lot of charge back requests even if those requests are ultimately unsuccessful.

There was a spate of people selling PS5 boxes on Ebay a while back. They clearly said PS5 "box" but the word box is small and surrounded by "New" "Unwanted gift" etc and priced at the RRP of a PS5. So people bought them and mistakenly thinking they were getting a PS5. Ebay ultimately banned such products (I believe). But I can see a payment provider wanting to dissuade crappy products with a lot of unhappy customers.

Re: Stripe increases fees for EU and UK-based businesses in April

#44

Post by tallytarik »

sleepyhead wrote: post #3

"Businesses in the EEA who are paying out in USD to a US-domiciled bank account will now incur a 1% fee, with a minimum fee of US$2.50 per payout." This is absurd. A 1% fee to transfer USD to a USD bank account? The alternative is to charge in another currency - which Stripe will put a 2% currency fee on. This is already on top of their expensive transaction costs. Will actively look for alternatives now.

This has also been the case in Australia since Stripe added the ability to pay out to a USD account last year.

I was excited to ditch the 2% currency conversion fee - nope, just reduced to 1%. For what? A currency conversion fee can be somewhat defended, or, at the very least, “everyone else does it”...

Now I want my funds in the same currency you accepted them, and I have to pay for the privilege?

Re: Stripe increases fees for EU and UK-based businesses in April

#45

Post by account42 »

orangepanda wrote: post #23
lotsofpulp wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> SEPA in EU is already something but it is taking ages for it to become an actual payment platform in everyday's life. Is there anything stopping merchants from offering different prices to people based on different payment methods? I assume the reason merchants do not list a discount for paying via SEPA or ACH or debit card or whatever local non credit card (and non Visa/Amex/MC) option, is because merchants benefi…

> Traders in the EU are not allowed to charge you extra for using your credit or debit card. https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/pri...

Which is basically the government helping an oligopoly instead of fighting it. Of course, considering how attractive the idea of all transactions being trackable must be to governments this is hardly surprising.

Re: Stripe increases fees for EU and UK-based businesses in April

#46

Post by makeitdouble »

capableweb wrote: post #4

Some European alternatives you might be able to find/negotiate better fees with: - mollie (Netherlands) - adyen (Netherlands) - Klarna (Sweden) - Paylike (Denmark) - Mangopay (Luxembourg) - Quickpay (Denmark) (added in edit) The ones I've tried of those, have an OK development experience, maybe not as polished as Stripe, but much better than the alternatives that were around before Stripe (huge hassle back then). Ide…

Adyen is relatively solid if you know what you're doing, Mangopay felt like a small hippie solution in comparison.

The upside is Mangopay was pretty reactive when we needed a human to talk to, the downside being that many requests would just end in "tough luck, we're too smal for that"

We ended up moving to Adyen for that reason.

Re: Stripe increases fees for EU and UK-based businesses in April

#47

Post by pjan »

capableweb wrote: post #4

Some European alternatives you might be able to find/negotiate better fees with: - mollie (Netherlands) - adyen (Netherlands) - Klarna (Sweden) - Paylike (Denmark) - Mangopay (Luxembourg) - Quickpay (Denmark) (added in edit) The ones I've tried of those, have an OK development experience, maybe not as polished as Stripe, but much better than the alternatives that were around before Stripe (huge hassle back then). Ide…

> Ideally, you'll support at least two providers you can switch between, if you can afford the development of supporting two

It is however not that simple if you want to remember your customers payment information, and don’t want any PCI-DSS liability or obligations. You’ll need a card vaulting solution in the middle, which comes as additional burden (and cost!) on top of the other payment provider integration. There’s big volumes you need to process to offset all of this, and probably not ROI sensible for many.

Re: Stripe increases fees for EU and UK-based businesses in April

#48

Post by account42 »

pifm_guy wrote: post #12
01acheru wrote: post #2

Something needs to change in the digital payments sector. 1.5% is ok-ish but 3.25% to accept foreign cards in the EU is a lot of money! I understand that costs are higher when using credit cards because of the credit part that introduces risk, but in my case for example I have a debit card that runs also over Mastercard, so either I have the money or I don't. Why should a merchant be charged the same fee of using a r…

It's the chicken and egg problem... If you started a new card provider today, you'd need to get consumers onboard, banks onboard, merchants onboard, and every card machine in the world replaced to accept your new card type. The closest we get to that is loyalty cards and gift cards that only work in one shop. Some of those have managed to be compatible with a few shops, but nowhere near what would be needed for a con…

If the EU were interested in doing something about this they wouldn't have that problem at all - they could simply mandate interopability.

Re: Stripe increases fees for EU and UK-based businesses in April

#49

Post by 02thoeva »

"UK businesses who are paying out in USD to a US-domiciled bank account will now incur a 1% fee, with a minimum fee of US$2.50."

So if we get paid out a USD payment, into a USD account. We get charged just because we're registered in the UK? That's a huge impact on our business.

Re: Stripe increases fees for EU and UK-based businesses in April

#50

Post by pjc50 »

amelius wrote: post #13
capableweb wrote: post #4

Some European alternatives you might be able to find/negotiate better fees with: - mollie (Netherlands) - adyen (Netherlands) - Klarna (Sweden) - Paylike (Denmark) - Mangopay (Luxembourg) - Quickpay (Denmark) (added in edit) The ones I've tried of those, have an OK development experience, maybe not as polished as Stripe, but much better than the alternatives that were around before Stripe (huge hassle back then). Ide…

Aren't there open source libraries available that abstract away the payment processor?

The processor saves you significant effort for card transactions by simplifying your merchant relationship with the card processor. Technically, you can just talk directly to them over their API: https://developer.mastercard.com/apis
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