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135 new currencies at Stripe
- Tarang 13y agoI was just wondering, to the customer user would this cost more if the foreign currency was used or their local one given the exchange rate is sometimes very good (e.g paying in US dollars instead of the local currency)
- pmtarantino 13y agoSometimes is the opposite. In Argentina, for example, it is better to pay in Pesos, because if I pay in dollars, I have to pay 1) the local bank conversion rate, and 2) the conversino rate at the end of the month, which may be higher.
- aurelianito 13y agoplus retentions that might eventually be used to pay other taxes (or not)
- collision 13y agoIn our experience, the conversion rates most customers get aren't very good, and this will end up cheaper. More importantly, the price can be a sane amount (€14.99/month for a $19.99/month SaaS product) and will be predictable in advance. But you're right; there will sometimes be people who would be better off paying in dollars.
- sanswork 13y agoThis is excellent timing I was literally just this past week looking into switching to a different processor to get access to the local currencies in a few potential markets. Very excited.
- stephen_mcd 13y agoA slap in the face to Australian users who've been waiting patiently for half a year to use USD and still can't.
- pc 13y ago(I work at Stripe.) This limitation is a large part of why we've kept Stripe in beta in Australia. We figured it's worth allowing the people who find the current product useful to do so now, but we fully agree that not being able to charge in USD is a major limitation. We're working on it as fast as we can. Unfortunately, it's not entirely in our control.
- stephen_mcd 13y agoI don't understand how this is the case when younger competitors like Braintree and Pin are able to offer it.
- dangrossman 13y agoBraintree was founded in 2007, Stripe in in 2010. As an Australian company, Pin may have an easier time with Australian banks and regulations than Stripe. It's real easy to assume things are a lot simpler than they are when it comes to businesses that work with money, especially across borders.
- collision 13y agoBoth have been up and running in Australia longer than us, actually. And we want to launch multicurrency support in Australia properly: as a default part of every Stripe account with no paperwork. We could probably get a half-baked version out the door faster, but I don't think that's fair to our Australian users either.
- MichaelTieso 13y agoNice! Just starting to build my first app with Stripe so this couldn't have come at a better time.
- ronaldx 13y agoToday I learned that "Gibraltar Pound", "Falkland Pound" and "Saint Helenian Pound" each count as separate currencies.
- dublinclontarf 13y agoAlthough they are convertible one for one with the Pound Sterling. It's the same with the Isle of Mans currency the Manx pound. This is because these are British dependencies or have a special relationship with the UK but at the same time are independent.
- eCa 13y agoNote though that those pounds (I have a 5 Jersey Pound bill somewhere) are not legal tender in the UK [1]. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_pound http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jersey_pound
- ErsatzVerkehr 13y ago> The Jersey notes are not legal tender in the United Kingdom but are legal currency, so creditors and traders may accept them if they so choose.
- alexchamberlain 13y agoGood luck defining legal tender in the UK; a lot of English retailers won't take Scottish notes.
- ronaldx 13y agoLegal tender has a very specific definition that many people are not clear about; Scottish notes are not legal tender, not even in Scotland[0]. Although, they are convertible with English notes. (IANAL, this is my lay understanding and is provided for entertainment only and should not be taken as legal advice, etc:) Legal tender means you cannot claim a debt remains unpaid if you were offered repayment in the form of legal tender. So if I owe you £1000, you could in principle refuse to accept Scottish notes if you chose to and maintain that the debt stands (although that would be pretty crap of you, and you must accept the English notes after I've changed them at the bank). Retailers are allowed to accept pebbles in exchange for goods if they want, and would normally accept Scottish notes on this same basis (they want your business). I believe they could even refuse to accept legal tender: a retail transaction is considered to be making a contract rather than repaying a debt and therefore has little to do with legal tender (see also: 'invitation to treat'). I also suggest that retailers in London accept Scottish notes almost without exception. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_tender#United_Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_tender#United_Kingdom
- buddha25 13y agoThats amazing news! Live stripe, so well done
- theklub 13y agoNo crypto currencies yet...
- eterm 13y agoThey've got 99 currencies but the btc ain't one. Edit: Sorry, this isn't reddit. So: Yes, it shows that serious people doing serious business still aren't really that interested in Bitcoin.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- saalweachter 13y agoTo a certain extent, doesn't this weaken the case for Bitcoin? One of Bitcoin's big selling points is "seamless international commerce". If a company (ie, Stripe) makes it painless to let customers pay in whatever currency they have, doesn't that advantage for Bitcoin go away?
- gizzlon 13y agoYou can't actually use stripe in all corresponding countries though: https://stripe.com/global https://stripe.com/global
- oleganza 13y agoBitcoin has different selling points, one of them is independence of Stripe, PayPal and other intermediaries that are either too costly for some, or disallow certain transactions, or cause chargebacks, or not allowed in your country. Another selling point is that BTC you can own while USD/EUR/RUR/CNY you cannot. Fiat currencies are always under control of the banking system and ultimately at the mercy of the central banks. "Bail outs", "bail ins", "QE", "haircuts", "freezing accounts" etc. are all effects of not being able to hold your own money. You can hold physical gold, but it's not portable or easily divisible. Bitcoin allows holding any amount of wealth, be it $1 or $1000000 even inside your brain. It's much easier to meddle with your savings in USD/EUR than in Bitcoin.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- jcolton 13y agoIncredible! What I value most is the simplicity. Stripe has delivered a massive feature with almost no friction. Bravo.
- mootothemax 13y agoAre Stripe going to expand any further into Europe in the near future? I've integrated with Stripe several times now for US-based clients and am getting severely jealous!
- pc 13y agoWhat countries would you like to see supported? (You can sign up in a number of European countries today: https://stripe.com/global. https://stripe.com/global.)
- mootothemax 13y agoFor myself, Poland. I've also had clients in Italy and the Czech Republic make similar noises (although, I must confess, I know comparatively little about their local alternatives).
- polskibus 13y ago+1 for Poland (and the rest of Central Europe! Remove the obstacles - you'll be first from the West there instead of competing with others elsewhere in Europe(PayPal, etc.)
- vsl 13y agoNot really: PayPal is there and so is SaaSy/FastSpring. (I'm currently using FastSpring from Czech Republic and would love to have the Stripe option.)
- polskibus 13y agoPayPal didnt really get much traction in PL. Never heard about FastSpring. There's a local alternative PayU, which is the most used option for payment integration.
- pc 13y agoOk, good to know -- thanks!
- caseyf 13y agoCombined with Stripe Connect, this is great for marketplaces. I did a test charge and was pleasantly surprised to find that Stripe's "market rate" is really the mid market rate and not something else. PayPal's spread is something like 2.5% and then there is sometimes (always?) a 1% cross-border transaction fee, so Stripe's flat 2% fee is looking pretty good.
- dylandrop 13y agoWhere are the currency codes? I couldn't find a list on https://support.stripe.com/questions/in-which-currencies-can-i-charge-my-customers https://support.stripe.com/questions/in-which-currencies-can... In either case, this is really awesome. What sets this apart from Stripe's competitors, is that those companies (or at least Braintree) require you to set up a different account for each currency, which is a huge pain in the ass. Or at least this was the case last time I checked.
- pc 13y agoWe use the standard ISO 4217 codes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_4217 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_4217). But we should probably include them explicitly on that list. Willfix.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- RMacy 13y agoDo you support marketplace models (internationally)?
- krithix 13y agoHey, yep! Stripe Connect works in all our live and beta countries: https://stripe.com/connect https://stripe.com/connect. Our direct payouts product (https://stripe.com/blog/send-payouts-with-stripe https://stripe.com/blog/send-payouts-with-stripe) is currently US-only, but we're working on expanding it.
- kerryfalk 13y agoETA on payouts in Canada?
- cristinacordova 13y ago(I work at Stripe). No ETA yet, but we're actively working on it.
- jzwinck 13y agoI noticed the example uses "cny" in lower case. ISO currency codes are always uppercase. I imagine the API is case insensitive then. Which may pose a problem for the poor fellow who considers GBP the pound but GBp the pence. That is an established convention on some systems (e.g. Bloomberg, I think).
- pc 13y agoInteresting point. You're right; the currency param is case-insensitive. (And with regard to GBP vs GBp, our amounts are always denominated in the smallest unit of the currency.)
- jzwinck 13y agoWait, so if I tell you 100 GBp, is that closer to 100 dollars or 1 dollar? Is "gbp" pence or pounds for you? The "smallest unit" of some currencies may be ambiguous (e.g. 1 BTC vs. 1 Satoshi).
- pc 13y ago100 GBP in the API =~ $1. (The motivation behind always using the smallest denomination is to dissuade people from performing floating point math.) The smallest unit is pretty clear in most "normal" currencies, but you're right that Bitcoin kinda throws things off...
- jzwinck 13y agoHow do users or front-end developers know how to display 1 "usd" as 0.01 USD but 1 "inr" as 1 INR? I haven't seen an API for getting the display factors.
- pc 13y agoOur users are generally picking prices themselves (rather than having to render arbitrary currency/amount pairs), and so they tend to be aware of these subtleties, but we perhaps should start recommending good currency display libraries. (Or even including something in the official Stripe libraries.)
- dipth 13y agoStill waiting for Stripe support in Denmark. I'm getting seriously tired of having to deal with the old and rusty payment provider landscape here.
- annnnd 13y agoThe currency seems supported - "Danish Krone" is listed. Is there something else that is missing? (genuinly curious)
- viana007 13y agoBrazilian Real \o
- OoTheNigerian 13y agoWow! Awesome. I see Naira. Phew! :) So if I make my charge in Naira, how do you pay me in Naira considering Nigerian banks are yet to be supported. Of course same question apples to other non supported countries whose currencies are supported.
- fadelakin 13y agoI also as a Nigerian would like to know. If I charge someone in Naira, how does that work?
- cristinacordova 13y agoThe multi-currency capabilities (including the ability to charge in Naira) are only available to businesses based in Europe and the UK with banks in Europe and the UK. We do plan to bring Stripe to more countries, including Nigeria.
- cristinacordova 13y agoedit I wasn't able to edit the above comment, but I was referring to the US and Europe above, not the UK and Europe.
- crazygringo 13y agoHoly shamoly! This is incredible! I'm actually checking to make sure it's not Apr 1. I'm beyond-amazed at the sheer breadth of this list. I mean, PayPal itself only supports 20-odd currencies, I think. I mean, the Brazilian Real? Literally almost no payment processors support that. And believe me, I've looked for them. This is amazing news. (As a side question, if anybody from Stripe is listening here: how exactly is this done -- via partnerships with local banks, or via dynamic currency conversion? I ask because, in the case of DCC, you will find that there are big problems involved with Brazil specifically, and many legitimate transactions will be refused. Brazil is a very special case, and calling the BRL a supported currency could mean very many different things.)
- collision 13y agoFor a BRL charge the transaction will still be to a US merchant, rather than a local merchant. You're right that in some countries like Brazil, this can be a bit hit-or-miss.
- outworlder 13y agoBummer. But it is still amazing that BRL is supported at all, given the insane regulations.
- igorgue 13y agoWell PayFlow says it supports 190 markets (does that mean currencies?) https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/payflow-faq https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/payflow-faq
- Silhouette 13y agoI guess that definitively answers my previous question[1] about whether we can charge in US dollars or Euros as a UK business, then. :-) Quick but obvious follow-ups: 1. How do we look up the currency conversion rates that were applied for each charge? There are various hints on the Stripe page about these new currencies[2] but looking at the corresponding API documentation either I'm missing something or it hasn't been updated yet. 2. Are there any plans to support payment methods beyond the existing card schemes, at least in countries where those cards might not be the preferred form of payment? (For example, there are various European national card schemes like Carte Bleue in France, and in China there is the UnionPay system.) [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7181446 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7181446 [2] https://stripe.com/blog/new-currencies https://stripe.com/blog/new-currencies
- thairu 13y ago1. The currency conversion rates can be checked by retrieving the charge's balance transaction via https://stripe.com/docs/api#retrieve_balance_transaction https://stripe.com/docs/api#retrieve_balance_transaction 2. We are working on supporting different payment methods, but have no immediate ETA on when these will be available.
- Silhouette 13y agoThe currency conversion rates can be checked by retrieving the charge's balance transaction Sorry, I'm definitely missing something then. Where in the response to that request does it show the conversion rate? I only see the amount, currency and fee information, which doesn't seem to be any different to what looking up the original charge already told me.
- thairu 13y agoPlease let me know if this helps: https://gist.github.com/thairu/1bb35222aefd6e27aa07 https://gist.github.com/thairu/1bb35222aefd6e27aa07
- 13y ago
- joewee 13y agoThis is awesome. Its amazing it took so long for someone to actually make this a reality. Thanks for helping make the world flat stripe!
- g8oz 13y agoWow! The complacent incumbents in Canada are about to get a can of whoop ass opened on them.
- kjackson2012 13y agoCan the merchants keep the currency that they get paid in and elect to convert it at their choosing, or does it get immediately converted to whatever their home currency is?
- cristinacordova 13y agoStripe will immediately convert the currency to the user's local currency.
- ereckers 13y agoNow if somebody could solve the recurring billing in foreign currencies issue (Indian Rupee in my case), we'd be in business.
- joewee 13y agoWhat is the recurring billing problem?
- ereckers 13y agoSorry, just getting back around to this. I think my comment was way too general. I had a project recently that I was researching that wanted subscription/recurring payments done in Indian Rupees. Found that because of banking regulations and I believe other issues, this was not doable. Basically, from what I found there wouldn't be a way to run a subscriptions based website out of the US targeting India and Indian Rupee as the currency.
- billderose 13y agoIt's too bad the conversion between currencies adds an additional 2% fee.
- bowlofpetunias 13y agoIs Stripe ever going to support other payment methods? Stripe has been in beta in the Netherlands for a while now, but with credit card only, choosing between Stripe and old school payment providers (which aren't half as bad as what is apparently is the case in the US) that support all of the most used payment methods, Stripe is really not an option. Not unless I want to tell 80% of all clients to take their money elsewhere.
- nhangen 13y agoGreat feature, but now I have to write a new currency handler for all of our products.
- Smirnoff 13y agoTo Stripe employees: So let me get this straight - a US based company can accept UZS (Uzbek Sum) payments from clients in Uzbekistan and Stripe will convert the UZS funds into USD? I DO NOT BELIEVE THIS!!! What are the strings attached? Any limitations? I mean Uzbekistan has one of the most messed up economies in the world. Only here a used car costs more than a new car (I am not kidding) and Uzbekistan practically has non-existent conversion. People usually use black market to convert UZS to USD. Thus, I cannot believe you pulled it off. And if you did do it, who do I talk to at Stripe to find out the details and rates?
- GFischer 13y agoWhile Uzbekistan is a contender for "most messed up economies in the world", Venezuela, Argentina and Zimbawe, for example will disagree with you :) In Argentina used cars cost more than new ones as well, because new ones are often "vaporware" and take months to actually deliver. Both Venezuela and Argentina use the black market too (Venezuela being far worse than Argentina) I see the same happens in Uzbekistan :) : http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67469 http://www.eurasianet.org/node/67469 Edit: see rafaelm's comment about Venezuela https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=rafaelm https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=rafaelm I live in Uruguay but we have to deal with Argentina's problems (next-door neighbour and 3rd biggest trade partner), and Venezuela is an important trade partner, so we're very aware of their problems.