To Stripe or not to Stripe in Canada | Hacker News Reader

To Stripe or not to Stripe in Canada

taskforce-1.com

24 pointsmikikian18 comments

You're right – we messed up here, and I am sorry for that.

There were some upstream difficulties in transferring USD funds to Canadian bank accounts. As entrepreneurs ourselves, we understand how important it is to have transfers go through reliably–your business depends on this–and so we are wiring the funds (of course, at no cost to you) as an immediate fix. We are continuing to monitor the transfers situation and we will make sure that you continue to get your money correctly and on time.

We could have communicated this more clearly, and are working in parallel to improve this going forward (though we of course hope to not see any problems like this). To that end, we are looking into proactive emails for these situations on the off-chance that this happens in the future.

Again, I'm very sorry that you are having to deal with this. We've built Stripe so that you don't have to think about the complexities of accepting payments online–including receiving your money–and I hope that you'll let us show you how important this is. I'll be watching this HN thread, but you're also welcome to email me directly at michael@stripe.com if you ever need anything.

Stripe.com is still not well tested here in Canada

Then lower your expectations until it is better tested. They just launched and the fact they chose Canada has been incredible. I have nothing but great things to say about Stripe from my own use.

Stripe's Canadian offering isn't in beta anymore. Users should expect a fully tested product. Especially since Stripe is handling their money.

read my comment above, stripe should work as stated, they have exited beta testing period

Honestly i've loved Stripe. Having used Paypal in the past in Canada, its nice that I can accept Amex cards, my account has never been frozen for some obscure reason and when there is an issue I always get someone through support that is friendly and well informed.

If you're unhappy, there are alternatives...but i think Stripe is the best option available.

This is not about account being frozen its about transfers not working as stated previously

The significant issue that the author of the blog post might be missing is that Stripe is dealing with Canadian banks offering "US funds" accounts that are not technically US bank accounts.

If you hate fun, try staying calm while a Paypal agent explains to that a) they will not issue you a Mastercard debit card that will let you spend/withdraw funds without converting to CAN currency and b) if you attempt to transfer money from your Paypal account into your Canadian "US funds" account, they will first convert it to CAN and then your bank will convert it back to USD... and then if you want to withdraw in CAN they will convert it again.

That means that if you accept money for an eBay auction with Paypal, and you foolishly chose be Canadian and have the wrong account type at your bank... you will be charged for listing your auction, a percentage of your auction close, Paypal will take a few percent, and then a total of three redundant currency conversions - each taking a cut - will all disappear if you withdraw cash at an ATM. Oh - and that's after they hold your funds for 21 days. Plus if you experience "too much success" they might just freeze your account indefinitely unless you're a famous blogger.

At least Stripe are working to make our lives better as Canadian devs. For that, I thank them. Pre-Stripe, things were pretty dreary in the payments space.

Peterforde, per talking with support it is evident stripe has merchant accounts setup in Canada, funds are aggregated through these accounts and then forwarded onto Canadian USD or CAD bank account. Paypal is different type of aggregator. Stripe actually negotiated with each bank in Canada, this is why they can settle in USD not convert it. Where did you get idea us funds accounts are used? This seems a little bit off from what I've seen.

http://www.quora.com/How-are-Square-and-Stripe-able-to-accep...

Seems like Stripe handled it well - they offered to wire the money to the OP and pay the associated fees. No harm, no foul?

How does that scale?

I'd assume this is a case by case basis till they solve the problems they are having with USD -> CDN accounts

seanmccann, I am a big fan of stripe as well, what you need to realize is that we have a business that relies on transfers being done in accordance to what stripe has stated, we have perm. staff on board that needs to be paid. Stripe has initially assured us that this would work as stated, this is why we have entered into relationship with them. I truly hope they resolve this issue so that we can start processing with them again.

michaelschade, thanks for the wire, I am wondering since you are doing the wire will the bank deduct from our total fee on our side, since this is a wire transfer not ACH or EFT.

Your bank shouldn't add any extra fees, but if they do, just let me know and I'll reimburse. We will make sure that you are consistently paid on time.

Thanks for the assistance michael, I got confirmation from Darragh as well so I will wait for funds to come in on Monday as stated. I assume it should be safe to continue using Stripe, as this problem should not happen again correct?

That's exactly right: it's safe to continue using Stripe (you'll receive your money on time) and you should expect a great experience going forward.

Thank you, we are glad to hear this and are hoping to continue working with stripe as there is other products we are developing which will utilize stripe

I'd say judging by the way this is handled that it comes down on the side of 'definitely to Stripe in Canada'.

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