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It can be up to 30% if they freeze your account for "suspicious activity." This is currently happening to someone I know who's had all of their November sales f

It can be up to 30% if they freeze your account for "suspicious activity." This is currently happening to someone I know who's had all of their November sales frozen. They say Stripe might return 70% of the funds... in February. They're trying to reach a human but no luck so far.

aliswe 4y ago
Are you serious? This is very concerning
- jgust 4y ago
  You either die a hero or live long enough to become Paypal.
  - Spivak 4y ago
    live long enough to understand why Paypal became Paypal.
    - steve_adams_86 4y ago
      Is the answer simply money?
      - aga98mtl 4y ago
        No, the answer is that credit cards allow chargebacks for up to 180 days. Stripe or Paypal is betting on your honesty by allowing you to withdraw sooner. Stray out of their secret "safe" behavior allowed and they deem the risk too high.
        Alupis 4y ago
        Also... new accounts that experience sudden surges of transactions without well established seasonal patterns and account history are very risky for all processors. The processor has to protect themselves from being used in some sort of Carding-Farm Scheme, has to protect other merchants from the processor being cut off by issuers (for having too many fraudulent transactions/chargebacks), and protect actual Card Holder's from fraud (since the processor/merchant ultimately are responsible for the chargeback). People are always surprised when their new account with a few hundred a day in revenue suddenly surges to thousands a day in a short period, and the processor wants to investigate why... Use the tools freely provided by your processor to protect yourself. Sweep the balance into your business bank account every single day - it's usually automatable and free. There is never a reason to store more than 24 hours of revenue in a processor account... they are not a bank!
        YetAnotherNick 4y ago
        Is there any processor which puts the funds to themselves, with the legal binding that unless customer charge backs I will get the money after the chargeback period? Seems like this could save payment processor with lot of headaches while reducing their fees.
        35mm 4y ago
        Probably not because it would be hard for most businesses to wait 180 days to get paid.
- capableweb 4y ago
  Absolutely, payment providers block/suspend accounts left and right, and you're out of luck to find any humans to talk to. If you manage to find a human, 99% chance is that it triggered something in their "anti fraud" systems and then they'll simply state "We can't tell you why, and we can't unsuspend your account, sorry". Best course of action I've found, is to build your initial MVP with one payment provider but as soon as you've validated there is a market and before you move on with other features, add a backup provider you can switch to at any time because chances are you will get blocked at one point. If not permanent, at least temporary. If you're clever enough when you build the initial integration, you make sure to abstract out the specific payment provider so it's easy to plug in a new one. Shouldn't add too much complexity. Sucks but the reality we live in...
  - eloff 4y ago
    Completely agree, that's why this Lago is interesting to me instead of using Stripe services. I'd rather use Stripe for the bare minimum so I can implement support for a backup provider as well.
  - theturtletalks 4y ago
    This works for normal payment processing, but Connect is something that doesn't have a viable alternative. Lago wants to abstract the Connect functionality and allow you to use Stripe Payments, Paypal, other processors, and get the Connect functionality to be open-source. Looking forward to their work and it is sorely needed.
  - viggity 4y ago
    This happens far too often. And because stripe handles the PCI compliance, you can't even take your customer's CC info to another merchant account. This is why people need to be using a PCI tokenizer like BasisTheory. Then you own the rights to the CC, without needing to handle PCI compliance, and you can switch vendors easily.
    - jhdhjdkjdhcfnj 4y ago
      nice try mr sales person. PCI tokenizer is pure snake oil. "dear auditor, i do not store the credit card number, only an unique index to fetch it at any time on this rest service. i promisse it is totally not the same thing" good luck trying to make thay avoid compliance work.
tiffanyh 4y ago
Isn't the a function of not having your own merchant account? By using Stripe, you're actually just a sub-account to them.
Alupis 4y ago
> This is currently happening to someone I know who's had all of their November sales frozen Why on earth is this person not sweeping nightly into their business bank account? Never leave money in your processor account... they are not your bank! This is the same stuff people complain about with PayPal - failing to realize this scenario (to this extent where it's threatening your business) is almost entirely the business operator's fault due to a severe lack of understanding of how to use a processor. My guess is this person's processor account went from small benign numbers and then suddenly had a surge of business (possibly seasonal). This sudden increase in volume can (and will) trigger anti-fraud audits from your processor if you do not already have a well established history with them. You go through it, and move on. Generally it's not an issue if you sweep nightly! Spread the word - your payment processor is not your bank. Sweep nightly, it's almost always a free service they offer.
- rstupek 4y ago
  Stripe auto sweeps but not nightly. Not sure you have any control over when they sweep funds over
  - Alupis 4y ago
    Stripe does support nightly sweeps, and according to their documentation[1] it's the default when you enable sweeping. [1] https://support.stripe.com/questions/understanding-daily-automatic-and-manual-payouts https://support.stripe.com/questions/understanding-daily-aut...
  - chinathrow 4y ago
    I can set daily/weekly or monthly payouts just fine.
- satvikpendem 4y ago
  > Never leave money in your processor account... they are not your bank! Reminds me of crypto exchanges too. Don't leave money in an exchange, use it to, well, exchange money, then move it to your bank account or wallet.
iJohnDoe 4y ago
It’s a bummer that Stripe didn’t enter the market to be better than this and to bring something new to the table.

aliswe 4y ago

Are you serious? This is very concerning

jgust 4y ago
You either die a hero or live long enough to become Paypal.
- Spivak 4y ago
  live long enough to understand why Paypal became Paypal.
  - steve_adams_86 4y ago
    Is the answer simply money?
    - aga98mtl 4y ago
      No, the answer is that credit cards allow chargebacks for up to 180 days. Stripe or Paypal is betting on your honesty by allowing you to withdraw sooner. Stray out of their secret "safe" behavior allowed and they deem the risk too high.
      - Alupis 4y ago
        Also... new accounts that experience sudden surges of transactions without well established seasonal patterns and account history are very risky for all processors. The processor has to protect themselves from being used in some sort of Carding-Farm Scheme, has to protect other merchants from the processor being cut off by issuers (for having too many fraudulent transactions/chargebacks), and protect actual Card Holder's from fraud (since the processor/merchant ultimately are responsible for the chargeback). People are always surprised when their new account with a few hundred a day in revenue suddenly surges to thousands a day in a short period, and the processor wants to investigate why... Use the tools freely provided by your processor to protect yourself. Sweep the balance into your business bank account every single day - it's usually automatable and free. There is never a reason to store more than 24 hours of revenue in a processor account... they are not a bank!
      - YetAnotherNick 4y ago
        Is there any processor which puts the funds to themselves, with the legal binding that unless customer charge backs I will get the money after the chargeback period? Seems like this could save payment processor with lot of headaches while reducing their fees.
        35mm 4y ago
        Probably not because it would be hard for most businesses to wait 180 days to get paid.
capableweb 4y ago
Absolutely, payment providers block/suspend accounts left and right, and you're out of luck to find any humans to talk to. If you manage to find a human, 99% chance is that it triggered something in their "anti fraud" systems and then they'll simply state "We can't tell you why, and we can't unsuspend your account, sorry". Best course of action I've found, is to build your initial MVP with one payment provider but as soon as you've validated there is a market and before you move on with other features, add a backup provider you can switch to at any time because chances are you will get blocked at one point. If not permanent, at least temporary. If you're clever enough when you build the initial integration, you make sure to abstract out the specific payment provider so it's easy to plug in a new one. Shouldn't add too much complexity. Sucks but the reality we live in...
- eloff 4y ago
  Completely agree, that's why this Lago is interesting to me instead of using Stripe services. I'd rather use Stripe for the bare minimum so I can implement support for a backup provider as well.
- theturtletalks 4y ago
  This works for normal payment processing, but Connect is something that doesn't have a viable alternative. Lago wants to abstract the Connect functionality and allow you to use Stripe Payments, Paypal, other processors, and get the Connect functionality to be open-source. Looking forward to their work and it is sorely needed.
- viggity 4y ago
  This happens far too often. And because stripe handles the PCI compliance, you can't even take your customer's CC info to another merchant account. This is why people need to be using a PCI tokenizer like BasisTheory. Then you own the rights to the CC, without needing to handle PCI compliance, and you can switch vendors easily.
  - jhdhjdkjdhcfnj 4y ago
    nice try mr sales person. PCI tokenizer is pure snake oil. "dear auditor, i do not store the credit card number, only an unique index to fetch it at any time on this rest service. i promisse it is totally not the same thing" good luck trying to make thay avoid compliance work.

tiffanyh 4y ago

Isn't the a function of not having your own merchant account? By using Stripe, you're actually just a sub-account to them.

Alupis 4y ago

> This is currently happening to someone I know who's had all of their November sales frozen Why on earth is this person not sweeping nightly into their business bank account? Never leave money in your processor account... they are not your bank! This is the same stuff people complain about with PayPal - failing to realize this scenario (to this extent where it's threatening your business) is almost entirely the business operator's fault due to a severe lack of understanding of how to use a processor. My guess is this person's processor account went from small benign numbers and then suddenly had a surge of business (possibly seasonal). This sudden increase in volume can (and will) trigger anti-fraud audits from your processor if you do not already have a well established history with them. You go through it, and move on. Generally it's not an issue if you sweep nightly! Spread the word - your payment processor is not your bank. Sweep nightly, it's almost always a free service they offer.

rstupek 4y ago
Stripe auto sweeps but not nightly. Not sure you have any control over when they sweep funds over
- Alupis 4y ago
  Stripe does support nightly sweeps, and according to their documentation[1] it's the default when you enable sweeping. [1] https://support.stripe.com/questions/understanding-daily-automatic-and-manual-payouts https://support.stripe.com/questions/understanding-daily-aut...
- chinathrow 4y ago
  I can set daily/weekly or monthly payouts just fine.
satvikpendem 4y ago
> Never leave money in your processor account... they are not your bank! Reminds me of crypto exchanges too. Don't leave money in an exchange, use it to, well, exchange money, then move it to your bank account or wallet.

iJohnDoe 4y ago

It’s a bummer that Stripe didn’t enter the market to be better than this and to bring something new to the table.