Honestly, the API docs and Gem are so good you don't need a book.
From sitting down can looking over the docs to charging my debit card for a monthly subscription took about an hour (and I'm not even that good with ruby, if you're a pro you could do it in half an hour I reckon).
I manage a drop-in Rails engine for adding Stripe subscriptions to an app (http://github.com/andrewculver/koudoku) and the number one piece of feedback I get is that people wish they had heard of it before they integrated Stripe subscriptions in their app. This tells me that there is room for gems like mine and books like Pete's in the little ecosystem Stripe has created.
My debit card is from Visa, and Visa is a supported payment system.
I think that's why he makes a point of saying American Express in the blog post too, it's one of the more obscure payment systems in the UK.
On a side note, I remember my mother, who runs a corner shop, giving anyone who pays on AmEx the evil eye because they have a higher merchant fee in the UK and it takes a few extra days to clear.
I wonder if Stripe UK have the same fees for AmEx...
Yep, we have the same fees for American Express transactions: 2.4% + 20p + VAT per successful charge.
Does Stripe have "operations" in the Republic of Ireland?
Will Stripe shuffle UK sales/transactions through Dublin in order to avoid paying corporation tax in the UK?
Quite a lot of people in the UK are sick of companies coming across the Atlantic and playing international tax games.
The issue that's caused a lot of grief is that a lot of companies set up what pretty much accounts to shell companies in Ireland, with the bare minimal operations they can get away with, and route massive amounts of revenue through it in creative ways that have nothing to do with where the actual operations and revenues of the company are.
Especially the "double Irish with a Dutch sandwich" arrangement has drawn a lot of ire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement
The restaurant refused the company amex card of the team manager and one of the better off senior members of the team had to put it on his debit card and claim it back.
Sounds like fun