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Payment methods
Main Post:
Can you please add more payment methods? Only having credit/debit cards is not really what I would expect in 2024.
Reddit is now the only limiting factor for me to fully switch banks, as with my new bank I only get prepaid credit cards.
Top Comment: Thanks for the feedback u/fangedSimlex . Please note that: We only accept credit and debit cards. We don’t accept prepaid debit cards, Paypal, bitcoin, check, or wire transfer. However, as Reddit ads is progressing in the best interest of advertisers, we are trying to work it out and is definitely in our pipeline
How popular are online payment methods with clients?
Main Post:
What are people's thoughts regarding online payments for clients?
I've got a WordPress site with WPForms for the contact page and noticed WPForms has a good Stripe integration feature. I'll be using Syncro and that has online payment integration, too.
- Do most clients appreciate the convenience of online payments or do some prefer using other methods?
- Thoughts on Stripe vs Square?
- Would it make more sense to offer an online payment method integrated with WPForms on my site, or to integrate it with Syncro instead?
- For anyone offering online payments, what are your fees like?
Top Comment: We use alternative payments. Mandatory ACH for recurring and optional credit cards for one offs. ETA: Make getting paid as easy as possible. You don't want to spend hours tracking down payment and the easier you make it to get paid, the more likely you are to get paid on time. I started off with syncro, stripe, and gocardless iirc. It wasn't 100% seamless but better than nothing.
I tried all the payment providers so you don't have to
Main Post:
There are many payment platforms today, and I’ve always asked myself — how are any of these different from Stripe? So I decided to go down the rabbit hole and try each of them out.
I’ve found that there are 3 - 4 categories which payment software fall under and I’ll be sharing my thoughts on each one of them.
1. Payment processors: Stripe, Braintree
Explanation: Think of this category as the AWS of payments — it’s low level and responsible for moving money from your customers’ wallets to yours.
Pros & Cons: Just like AWS for hosting, it's super flexible and can support most use cases. However, this also means that implementation is more tedious — you have to track customer tiers & feature usage in your DB, handle upgrade / downgrade logic, etc.
Pricing: Takes a cut of each transaction. Eg. Stripe charges 2.9% + 30¢
2. Merchant of Records (MoR): Paddle, Lemon Squeezy, Creem, Polar
Explanation: MoRs are essentially payment processors, with the bonus that they handle your sales tax. For those unfamiliar, once you hit certain revenue thresholds in different countries, you're legally required to register with their tax authorities and submit regular tax filings.
Pros & Cons: Handling sales tax is an arduous process which is what makes MoRs so compelling. However, implementation-wise, you're looking at the same level of effort as payment processors.
Pricing: Takes a cut of each transaction. However, because MoRs sit on top of payment processors, the fees are higher (eg. 3.9% for Creem and 4% for Polar)
3. Billing platforms: Metronome, Orb, Lago
Explanation: These platforms are a layer above Stripe. While they help with a range of things, in recent years, they’ve been particularly valuable for companies with usage-based pricing (eg. OpenAI’s $X for 1M tokens)
Pros & Cons: You don’t have to track feature usage in your own DB or calculate how much to charge customers each month. Billing platforms take care of all of that for you.
Pricing: Pricing model varies, but usually some monthly fee based on the volume of events you send to the platform. This is also not including the fees you’d pay for payment processing.
Note: Stripe has it’s own product in this category called Stripe Billing
4. Entitlement platforms: Stigg, Schematic
Explanation: These platforms are also a layer above Stripe. However, unlike the former category, they focus on helping you implement complex pricing models and feature gating (aka entitlements) — ideal if you have pricing models with multiple usage-based entitlements (eg. 100 feature A / month, 20 feature B / month)
Pros & Cons: When using these platforms, you don’t have to store tiers and feature usage in your own DB, all you have to do is call an API to check if a customer can access the feature. Also usually comes with frontend widgets (eg. pricing plans page, customer portal, etc.)
Pricing: Usually a flat monthly fee depending on how large your company is. Also not including fees you’d pay your payment processor.
Conclusion
- If your pricing model is basic (eg. free & pro tier with no usage-based entitlements), go with Stripe. It’s the cheapest and won’t be too difficult to set up
- If you have complex plans which include usage-based entitlements like 100 credits / month and don’t want to spend time managing all that logic in-app, go with entitlement platforms
- If your pricing is heavily usage-based and you’re tracking a ton of events (eg. 1M events per day), go with billing platforms
- As you start to scale and surpass the revenue threshold in countries, consider migrating to MoRs so that you don’t have to deal with that headache. Optionally, you can use these platforms to start so you never have to worry about them.
Edit: Added Braintree to category 1
Top Comment: You’re missing a ton of providers. https://www.nerdwallet.com/best/small-business/stripe-competitors
I'm at my wit's end. Payment processor recommendations?
Main Post:
Hello there, I recently migrated away from Shopify to get better control over my business' finances, specifically payout speed. Waiting 3-4 days after a sale to get the funds to pay for ads/shipping/supplies...this has been a critical area of struggle for me over the years, more bearable when I had credit options, unbearable now that I don't.
Back in 2021 I used to have a Stripe account for a subdomain I tested and I was able to get instant payouts. So I'm currently using the Stripe gateway, and it appears they have a 60 day delay for new accounts before activating this feature. The way support explained it to me, Stripe is literally covering my payout until they get the customer's money. Understandable for the delay, but I can't wait that long for this feature.
I know I can use PayPal but a lot of customers don't want to use it or prefer to enter their card credentials instead. I used to find myself hoping for PayPal purchases over Shopify Payments, etc. so I could get the funds faster, but with no way to control this.
What is a payment processor that integrates with WooCommerce that will allow me to make a sale through general methods (debit/credit card, Apple/Google Pay, etc.) and access the customer's funds immediately?
Top Comment: This is a cash flow issue, not a technology issue. You need to figure out how to get yourself enough money in the bank to be able to pay obligations while waiting on funds.
What's your preferred payment processor?
Main Post:
Hey guys. Going to open up my business bank account with Chase this morning. Wondering if I should just hook it up to accept PayPal/Venmo (can people pay with their credit cards through these?) or do I need to use Square or Stripe?
I've heard the fees with those are higher; my business is still pretty small so I'd like to keep simple and lean. Would appreciate suggestions.
Top Comment: I use Square. Mainly because people already know what it is. Feels more professional than taking payments with Venmo or Zelle.
Doing your own payment processing
Main Post:
Hi guys so this is just a topic I've been really curious about in general, in production I'll obviously still use something like stripe for a long time but has anyone just made their own payment processing? and what are the resources needed to learn to do this? I know it's hard, and I say this because most posts I've found about this on other subs people just reply with "that's hard, this other payment processor is a bit cheaper than stripe" if anyone has any resources like a book or something that goes in depth about this I'd appreciate it, or even stories on your own experience using your own payment processor.
Top Comment: No. I'd rather smear honey all over my ass and sit on an anthill than build my own payment processor. Or build my custom timezone-aware appointment calendar. Or use a non-relational database for relational data (it was not my decision). Or work on Adobe Experience Manager (the devil's work).
Can someone explain payment processing like I’m 5?
Main Post:
From what I understand, in order to charge customers’ credit or debit cards, you need to use a payment processor like Paypal or Stripe. It seems like the fee for using this service is around (4% + $0.50) per transaction.
To get around this, you could make users link a bank account for ACH transfer or use crypto to circumvent this fee.
Specifically for my situation, I’m offering a B2C SaaS subscription service with plans around $5 or $10. The fees are pretty steep for these smaller monthly transactions, am I just forced to pay these fees if I want to take online payments?
For a broader audience: in your startup, how do you accept payments, who is the processor, and what fees are you paying?
Top Comment: So when you're using PayPal or Stripe to take credit cards, there's the amount that Visa (or the CC provider) is taking, and then there's the additional amount that PayPal or Stripe is taking on top of that. For pricing a subscription that small, to limit (expensive) monthly transactions, I've seen a lot of companies do some variation of "buy 6 or 12 months and save" pricing strategy. - Something like $15/mo, but only $120 for the year.
What's the Best Online Payment Options?
Main Post:
I have a small business that I run on Instagram and Etsy. I am trying to figure out what is the best online payment option that would be best for people to send me money for my work and items. I was thinking Zelle and my bank would take Zelle but I want to be sure. I am looking for something that is 100% secure, instant transaction and safe for me and shoppers. I need some help and advice, thanks!
Edit: Btw I already am a graphic designer and I created my own logo and art work. Please stop messaging me about creating a logo for me I already have one. My business is a sticker business mainly but I do create logos, business cards, cups, mugs, tumblers and more for clients. I am just asking advice on payment that's it. Everything else is taken care of, thanks again.❤️
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