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We're happy Stripe customers, but our Stripe account is based in an EU country, and our entire volume is in USD. For some Stripe policy reason, we can't transfe

We're happy Stripe customers, but our Stripe account is based in an EU country, and our entire volume is in USD. For some Stripe policy reason, we can't transfer USD from Stripe to our EU bank account, it's not allowed. You can only transfer USD to US or Canadian bank accounts. We've been in contact with Stripe support over this, and their recommended solution was to use Atlas and setup a US company and bank account, but that's the wrong solution for us. We already have a company which we're happy about, we don't want to become a multi-national entity with all the liability that follows. So, question: Are you actively going to push Atlas as the solution to our problem as well? It seems completely misguided to me, we just want to be able to transfer the USD held in our Stripe account to our EU-based USD bank account, and not do any currency conversions at all.

user5994461 10y ago
You should try Adyen https://www.adyen.com/ https://www.adyen.com/ It's an European company and it's the main competitor to Stripe on our continent. They are actually a bit older and ten times bigger than Stripe, however they don't advertise much. Disclaimer: I am NOT affiliated with any of these providers.
- no1youknowz 10y ago
  Adyen does not work with startups. I contacted their sales and they slammed the door shut immediately. They were actually quite rude and the tone was like an automated email. Their wording was they only wanted to work with LARGE companies which already processed LARGE volumes. Unless someone from Adyen wants to clarify?
  - cmdkeen 10y ago
    Their pricing page says: "The minimum charge is 1,000 transactions a month, so the transaction cost will be at least €100 a month." Doesn't look startup friendly at all.
    - no1youknowz 10y ago
      True. Unfortunately, what their website says and what their sales staff say on email are completely different things.
      - no1youknowz 10y ago
        Can't edit my comment. For US company holders, adyen is totally out. "Adyen being a European based acquirer has set the requirement of at least 50% of the transaction volume to be European based." "This is a rule set forth in order to comply with card schemes such as Visa and MasterCard." From their sales. ------ Honestly, talking to their sales was like pulling teeth. I couldn't get anyone on the phone and neither would they call me. What would have taken a 5 minute call to go through the details. Turned out to be an all day event through email. /facepalm.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
  - laverick 10y ago
    We used Adyen for a German-based startup about five years ago. I don't remember it being that difficult back then, but I just handled code. Our biz guys handled the account stuff. For what it's worth, they were both a little profligate and good at telling a big tale, so it may not have been an affordable or easy option back then either.
laverick 10y ago
What you're describing isn't unique to Stripe. Pretty much every payment processor works this way. I've looked into a lot of them have yet to find a mainstream one that will deposit USD to a USD account in Europe, HK, SG, etc. (If Adyen does specifically that without big fees then great, but it's news to me.) What Stripe support is really telling you is that you need a US bank account to avoid the exchange fees. This is more or less correct. As you say, though, they're misguided is in pushing Atlas. It's probably the simplest way for you to get a US bank account, but in many ways it's the worst long-term option. That's because Stripe Atlas creates a C-Corp, which is liable for US corporation taxes and has to file them every year. You have two other options: 1) Get a US Bank account for your foreign company directly. This is not easy, many banks won't do it, but some will. E.g. I have a SVB account for a foreign corporation (with an EIN) so I can use Stripe in the US for my subscription app. 2) Form a US LLC that's fully owned by your EU corp. A single member LLC can elect to be tax transparent in the US. That means you don't have to pay US corporate taxes as long as you don't have business operations (employees, basically) in the US. With a US LLC it's relatively easy to open a US bank account, though you may need to travel to the US. If you want some expert tax advice for the US component of this setup here's a good guy to ask: http://ustax.bz/ http://ustax.bz/ Once you have a US bank account sorted you may need to migrate your Stripe subscriptions. This is not something that Stripe officially supports or will do for you, but after lots of digging with their support I was told that it's possible to do without requiring any re-opt-in from your subscribers. It's just that you need to do the migration yourself by transferring the subscription data. (Details escape me. Please confirm this with them yourself.) What's the benefit of all this, other than adding a few percent to your gross profits? Well, the market for online business buyers is much stronger in the US than anywhere else. I'm betting on the fact that it'll be significantly easier to sell a business with a US Stripe account than a business with a German / Irish / Hong Kong / Singapore / whatever stripe account. Of course we're talking a few percent here and a few percent here. Before diving into this rabbit hole I would ask yourself if marketing & sales for a few percent increase might not be less effort than all of the above. Right, that was a bit long-winded. I don't monitor my replies here much, but feel free to ping me if you have questions. public @ my_hn_username . org
- desdiv 10y ago
patio11 10y ago
I'm going to look into this for you and will follow up by email. (If I find something which is useful for similarly situated companies, I will post what I learn here.)
- laverick 10y ago
  two thumbs up if something can be done to improve this that makes my complicated solution below superfluous
- henrikschroder 10y ago
  Thanks! I actually got a great response from the Stripe customer support team today where they said that it's not possible today because of your banking partner in Europe, but that you're working on it, and hope to have it done later this year. So that's great news for us! :-)

user5994461 10y ago

You should try Adyen https://www.adyen.com/ https://www.adyen.com/ It's an European company and it's the main competitor to Stripe on our continent. They are actually a bit older and ten times bigger than Stripe, however they don't advertise much. Disclaimer: I am NOT affiliated with any of these providers.

no1youknowz 10y ago
Adyen does not work with startups. I contacted their sales and they slammed the door shut immediately. They were actually quite rude and the tone was like an automated email. Their wording was they only wanted to work with LARGE companies which already processed LARGE volumes. Unless someone from Adyen wants to clarify?
- cmdkeen 10y ago
  Their pricing page says: "The minimum charge is 1,000 transactions a month, so the transaction cost will be at least €100 a month." Doesn't look startup friendly at all.
  - no1youknowz 10y ago
    True. Unfortunately, what their website says and what their sales staff say on email are completely different things.
    - no1youknowz 10y ago
      Can't edit my comment. For US company holders, adyen is totally out. "Adyen being a European based acquirer has set the requirement of at least 50% of the transaction volume to be European based." "This is a rule set forth in order to comply with card schemes such as Visa and MasterCard." From their sales. ------ Honestly, talking to their sales was like pulling teeth. I couldn't get anyone on the phone and neither would they call me. What would have taken a 5 minute call to go through the details. Turned out to be an all day event through email. /facepalm.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- laverick 10y ago
  We used Adyen for a German-based startup about five years ago. I don't remember it being that difficult back then, but I just handled code. Our biz guys handled the account stuff. For what it's worth, they were both a little profligate and good at telling a big tale, so it may not have been an affordable or easy option back then either.

laverick 10y ago

What you're describing isn't unique to Stripe. Pretty much every payment processor works this way. I've looked into a lot of them have yet to find a mainstream one that will deposit USD to a USD account in Europe, HK, SG, etc. (If Adyen does specifically that without big fees then great, but it's news to me.) What Stripe support is really telling you is that you need a US bank account to avoid the exchange fees. This is more or less correct. As you say, though, they're misguided is in pushing Atlas. It's probably the simplest way for you to get a US bank account, but in many ways it's the worst long-term option. That's because Stripe Atlas creates a C-Corp, which is liable for US corporation taxes and has to file them every year. You have two other options: 1) Get a US Bank account for your foreign company directly. This is not easy, many banks won't do it, but some will. E.g. I have a SVB account for a foreign corporation (with an EIN) so I can use Stripe in the US for my subscription app. 2) Form a US LLC that's fully owned by your EU corp. A single member LLC can elect to be tax transparent in the US. That means you don't have to pay US corporate taxes as long as you don't have business operations (employees, basically) in the US. With a US LLC it's relatively easy to open a US bank account, though you may need to travel to the US. If you want some expert tax advice for the US component of this setup here's a good guy to ask: http://ustax.bz/ http://ustax.bz/ Once you have a US bank account sorted you may need to migrate your Stripe subscriptions. This is not something that Stripe officially supports or will do for you, but after lots of digging with their support I was told that it's possible to do without requiring any re-opt-in from your subscribers. It's just that you need to do the migration yourself by transferring the subscription data. (Details escape me. Please confirm this with them yourself.) What's the benefit of all this, other than adding a few percent to your gross profits? Well, the market for online business buyers is much stronger in the US than anywhere else. I'm betting on the fact that it'll be significantly easier to sell a business with a US Stripe account than a business with a German / Irish / Hong Kong / Singapore / whatever stripe account. Of course we're talking a few percent here and a few percent here. Before diving into this rabbit hole I would ask yourself if marketing & sales for a few percent increase might not be less effort than all of the above. Right, that was a bit long-winded. I don't monitor my replies here much, but feel free to ping me if you have questions. public @ my_hn_username . org

desdiv 10y ago

patio11 10y ago

I'm going to look into this for you and will follow up by email. (If I find something which is useful for similarly situated companies, I will post what I learn here.)

laverick 10y ago
two thumbs up if something can be done to improve this that makes my complicated solution below superfluous
henrikschroder 10y ago
Thanks! I actually got a great response from the Stripe customer support team today where they said that it's not possible today because of your banking partner in Europe, but that you're working on it, and hope to have it done later this year. So that's great news for us! :-)