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Comment by pyronite | Hacker News Reader

> Instant Payouts cost 1.5% of the payout amount, with a minimum fee of 50¢.

This is the killer for us and, I'm guessing, many other marketplaces without a Lyft-sized (20%) rake.

Our current solution for marketplace payouts charges one quarter per payout. The funds are direct deposited in the user's account the next business day. Maybe we have a sweet deal, but to go from this to 1.5%, in addition to Stripe's other (higher than average) fees, is hard to justify. (Which is unfortunate, we'd love to use their great libraries!)

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I would guarantee that Lyft did not pay $7,500,000 in fees for this.

Does this mean that they're charging 1.5% + $0.50 on top of their 2.9% + $0.30 total?

It's unclear how all the pricing works. Does the normal stripe fee occur for the user of the market place in addition to the marketplace fee or does it only trigger when you the marketplace owner receives the payments? Or does it not trigger at all?

Yes - I would assume so since this is a Stripe transfer, which means it is money being moved from your account to another account, so likely you already paid the 2.9% + .30 on the money coming in.

We charge the marketplace 1.5% of the amount paid out (with a minimum charge of $0.50, so e.g. on a $30 payout, we'll charge $0.50) and we're able to offer discounts to platforms that are operating at scale. If you'd like to discuss, feel free to reach out to me at dave.coen@stripe.com

During the beta, we've seen many end users choose to pay a fee when they could have waited to receive a slower payout for free. We think the value of this product is in providing choice and giving end users immediate access to their funds when they want it. The stories I've heard from Lyft drivers about the difference it makes to have this flexibility has been my favorite part of working on Instant Payouts.

If you don't mind me asking, what's your current marketplace payout solution?[0]

Thanks!

[0] does it rhyme with holla?

It doesn't rhyme with holla, but we've also been asked not to disclose our pricing agreement, as we have a custom deal.

I can say that we aren't processing anything close to Lyft levels of revenue. (I wish.)

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