Stripe Link as a Payment Method

#1

Hi! Stripe is changing their entire price structure and it’s WAY cheaper if s2Member integrates with their new product called Link:

Would you be able to (very) easily integrate this into s2Member or would it be too much work, @clavaque? They say the fees are smaller but they don’t make it clear. It might make possible for users to subscribe with bank payments and other methods that are not compatible with the current method you use, though… :thinking:

Of course, it’s ok if you can’t do it now in case it’s too much work. I am clueless. Sorry.

#2

what’s the pricing structure for those payments? In Europe stripe got greedier and greedier introdcing new charges everywhere (especially annoying that you need to pay for Stripe radar - which saves them money and trouble…)

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#3

Yes! I am in Europe too! And yes, they’re really un nice right now! I receive a large percentage in USD. I use a USD Bank Account with Wise (so I don’t pay to convert unless I need or want to, plus they’re cheaper and transparent, Stripe won’t even give us a tool to see their exchange rates and fees) but now they will take an extra 1% of everything we cash out in non Euros.

On top of that they raised percentages and won’t refund chargeback fees even if we win a case!

The problem with those payment processors (and credit card companies, and banks) is they don’t need us as we need them and there’s no real competition (not sure why we don’t have more startups with lower fees, transparency and other benefits, maybe they’re too small and we’re unaware of them).

They just change their policies and fees and we’re left without a choice.

I am not sure about the price structure of the new system, but I know that it would be much cheaper to accept bank payments and other payment methods anyway. There’s also something on Stripe that allows us to take insurance against chargebacks (they charge a bit extra per transaction) but to have that done we can’t use the current method. I can only assume Stripe Link, as their “new product”, will be eligible for that?

Of course, we do whatever we can and I do not expect s2Member to add new payment methods unless they become necessary and we’re forced to stop using the current ones for any reason. Yet, if it’s not hard to implement, it would be a very welcome addition.

#4

well the biggest move would be if s2member could support all the gateways that are possible with Stripe sources like Giropay, ideal and so on. That would make a real change for me. I don’t care much if it’s 0.5% cheaper or more expensive if I could have Giropay and ideal added as many Germans still love bank wire.
I’m pretty sure stripe link for accepting credit cards won’t be any cheaper. Wouldn’t make sense except if they want to drop old payment methods which would be a shot in their own leg right now.

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#5

They are advertising their Link payment exactly as their “next gen” that should be cheaper. Since it has their checkout page, won’t it let subscribers to pay with any payment method that’s compatible with Stripe?

And yes, we should be able to accept other methods of payment that aren’t cards. Here in The Netherlands it’s very difficult to get any credit card and even if you get one, it’s almost useless for routine expenses, unless you like to buy “stuff” and not just groceries and basic items. Most people here won’t even bother (plus there’s not as many benefits as in America like cashback etc). SEPA transfers and other automatic direct debt options aren’t available either.

#6

The problem a bit would be - I don’t mind sending people to paypal. Everyone knows them and trusts them (if so many do dislike paypal). Sending customers to Stripe which most haven’t heard of, will definitely cause worries. But yes link payment would really be appreciated if integrated.

S2member should charge some money for this (or dual account support) - best a small yearly fee like 30-40€ so s2member gets some constant money stream and more people that way trusting it will be supported much longer (my worst “investment” was once buying thrivecart and trying to use it for checkout)

#7

I still don’t find pricing for link payments - but today Stripe just increased their prices in general on bullshit arguments - because credit card processors in the EU have been required to drop their percentage over the last years - not increase it:
— — —
Standard European cards (most cards including American Express) will change from 1.4% + €0.25 to 1.5% + €0.25.
Premium European cards (commercial Visa/Mastercard) will change from 1.4% + €0.25 to 1.9% + €0.25.
International cards issued outside of Europe and the UK will change from 2.9% + €0.25 to 3.25% + €0.25.
UK cards will remain the same at 2.5% + €0.25.
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#8

Yep. Exactly!

They are just increasing their own profit margins because, well, they can!? :worried:

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#9

I don’t know if this is a solution (or more of a problem). I have one person who emailed me asking to use IDEAL. In the past, I have created an invoice and this person paid for a one-year of membership. That was not recurring. Since I could not remember how to do it for this current prospect, I reached out to Stripe and they gave me this link to set things up:


This is totally foreign language to me. I have no clue where that goes, where to set things up, or if it would even work with s2M (no clue about the integration).

Does that have to be done inside s2M or is it something to set up on its own? I don’t have requests like that often so even if it is manual work, i could do it. I know how to send an invoice for a non-recurring payment, but for the recurring, that seems to be a totally different story.

#10

iDeal makes more sense if you have a large Dutch following, not otherwise.

If you get an odd request here and there you can manually create a profile and a subscription for a user, then send them the link to pay (and, therefore, start their subscription, using any of the payment methods accepted by Stripe).

#11

Yes, that is what I want to do, however, even that, I don’t have a clue how to do it. Would you know? Could you point me to how to do it? This person wanted to take advantage of a special deal I had for Groundhod Day (Feb 2nd) of $2/2 week trial then $25/month afterward.

Could you help me set that up for this person?

#12

You need to use Stripe’s Dashboard if they weren’t a previous subscriber:

Then you can open their page and add a subscription there. :slightly_smiling_face:

As the user won’t have a payment method you’ll only have the choice to ask the user to pay to start it.

Even if the user does you can also choose that option when creating a subscription, so they’re not charged against their will on a card they already might have there, if they didn’t intend to use it.

Stripe also has GREAT chat support you can use for those things, in case you need, since it doesn’t involve making any implementation on the API etc.

#13

Yes, their chat support is great, but when I got that last link, I thought it was going to be well over my head.
I’ll go check that right now.

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