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So patrons will now be responsible for covering the Stripe fees, and Patreon is still taking an additional 5% for their services. The Stripe fees were previous

So patrons will now be responsible for covering the Stripe fees, and Patreon is still taking an additional 5% for their services. The Stripe fees were previously taken out of the creators' portion, so it made a big difference to a creator whether they had one patron for $100/month or 100 patrons for $1/month. But that was hidden from patrons, who could easily and happily pledge $1 to a dozen creators. Can I now pledge 63 cents, so that the cost to me is $1? Also, I'd be shocked if me pledging $1 to a dozen creators resulted in a dozen Stripe charges. Clearly Patreon should run those charge once, so my $12 costs only 70 cents from Stripe.

ceejayoz 9y ago
Patreon wants us to think they're Stripe fees, but they're not. When I pay $17 for my monthly pledges, that comes out of my card as one single transaction, with one single $0.30 Stripe per-transaction fee. Stripe also offers high-volume clients a discount on the 2.9% rate, which Patreon must be big enough to get.
- caseyf 9y ago
  > Stripe also offers high-volume clients a discount on the 2.9% rate, which Patreon must be big enough to get. Yep. They pay 1.9% (source: https://patreon.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/204606125-How-do-you-calculate-fees- https://patreon.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/204606125-How-...) Also, Paypal offers a 5 cents + 5% micropayments rate that they take advantage of. The 35 cents plus 2.9% is clearly designed to make you think that they are processing fees and I'd be very surprised if Patreon wasn't putting at least half of that into their pocket.
  - jameskegel 9y ago
    5 cents and 5% is ridiculous if it is cost-plus, but if it is indeed a flat rate, considering how small some of these microtransactions can be, and the overhead involved for a transaction of any size, it starts to make sense.
GoatOfAplomb 9y ago
I tried changing a pledge to $0.63 just now, and the web form said I'd have to make it at least $1.00. So I canceled my pledge.
kevin_b_er 9y ago
Why would it? Patreon can batch them, charge you $16.55, pay out $11.40 to creators, pay out $0.61 to stripe, and pocket ~$4.54. Of course Patreon wants to pocket that $4.54. That's patreon taking a 27% cut instead of a 5% cut. Follow the money.

ceejayoz 9y ago

Patreon wants us to think they're Stripe fees, but they're not. When I pay $17 for my monthly pledges, that comes out of my card as one single transaction, with one single $0.30 Stripe per-transaction fee. Stripe also offers high-volume clients a discount on the 2.9% rate, which Patreon must be big enough to get.

caseyf 9y ago
> Stripe also offers high-volume clients a discount on the 2.9% rate, which Patreon must be big enough to get. Yep. They pay 1.9% (source: https://patreon.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/204606125-How-do-you-calculate-fees- https://patreon.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/204606125-How-...) Also, Paypal offers a 5 cents + 5% micropayments rate that they take advantage of. The 35 cents plus 2.9% is clearly designed to make you think that they are processing fees and I'd be very surprised if Patreon wasn't putting at least half of that into their pocket.
- jameskegel 9y ago
  5 cents and 5% is ridiculous if it is cost-plus, but if it is indeed a flat rate, considering how small some of these microtransactions can be, and the overhead involved for a transaction of any size, it starts to make sense.

GoatOfAplomb 9y ago

I tried changing a pledge to $0.63 just now, and the web form said I'd have to make it at least $1.00. So I canceled my pledge.

kevin_b_er 9y ago

Why would it? Patreon can batch them, charge you $16.55, pay out $11.40 to creators, pay out $0.61 to stripe, and pocket ~$4.54. Of course Patreon wants to pocket that $4.54. That's patreon taking a 27% cut instead of a 5% cut. Follow the money.