Stripe in Ireland
stripe.com
stripe.com
Luckily we got on the Stripe beta early. They've addressed multi-currency payments well. Our use case demands quite a bit of (re)development so it's not in yet. We're literally (figuratively :) chomping at the bit to get it installed though.
Two months ago I incorporated a C-Corp in Delaware, and registered a "virtual office" in the same state, remotely from my country of residence in SE Asia. Mr Ryan Roberts[1] helped with the incorporation, but I still need a US bank account to create an account in Stripe. I need it for my upcoming SaaS.
About a week ago I contacted Silicon Valley Bank to open an account (I can't remember who suggested it, I think Mr Ryan as well), and they sent me a questionnaire which I already filled out and sent back. But I haven't heard from them again. Since there's a story about Stripe in the front page[3], I'm wondering if someone can give me suggestion as how to proceed (e.g. maybe go to another bank).
I've never been to US, and I hope I don't have to go there just to open a bank account.
In case you're wondering, I was inspired by a blog post from Freshdesk[3].
[1] http://startuplawyer.com/about [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6319512 [3] http://blog.freshdesk.com/how-to-incorporate-a-us-corporatio...
Disclaimer: I'm not part of TransferWise, I just really like the idea.
I can understand that american citizens might be annoyed, but for people like me, who lives in Europe, it's nice to keep track of their progress.
There's nothing remotely interesting in Stripe for a hacker, just another scummy payment processor.
If you don't like Stripe articles then don't upvote them.
For what it's worth: I work at Stripe, and we didn't submit this story. If you've any suggestions as to what we should do to make the submissions less annoying, I'm all ears.
I think it's just the case that a lot of people in the various countries tend to care. For example, to take another benchmark, Stripe was a Twitter trending topic in both Ireland and Dublin when we launched this morning: https://twitter.com/TrendsDublin/status/374809599691325440, https://twitter.com/TrendsIreland/status/374806974908477440.
Your rates are the same as every other damn payment processor, that's why I fail to see the excitement. I'd also be interested to know if you pay tax in any of the countries your service operates.
And, yes; we charge VAT on our services in Europe; this goes straight to the government.
If "stripe in Ireland", and an office in London then you should right?
If they do a Google they will claim that UK transactions are really Irish transactions and pay tax in Ireland.
If they do an Apple they will claim that their Irish company owes vast technology licensing fees to a company in Bermuda.
Net result is that revenue is shuffled around until it ends up in a tax haven, ready for future distribution when the political tax climate or personal circumstance of key shareholders allows.
As a developer in Norway I am very much delighted to see Stripe roll out in Europe and hope to see more Stripe links here on Hacker News!
Braintree seems ok-ish but has a €100 minimum monthly fee. Paymill seems to be just fine but has some formal requirements.
Realex and Sagepay have a monthly fee, also require a merchant account, this is where the fun begins (although Sagepay offers own merchant accounts too).
AIB Merchant Account charges:
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Once off registration fee of €190. Credit Cards: 3.00% per transaction Laser Cards: 25c per transaction Visa Debit Cards: 35c per transaction Please bear in mind that we have a minimum monthly charge of €30, so if your total charge for Merchant Service Charge and Laser each month does not equal to €30, you will be charged €30.
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To get an AIB Merchant Account you also need to provide 3 months of bank accounts, and, wait for it… A BUSINESS PLAN (!)
Also… "Once the signed application is returned to us it will be processed within 5-10 working days."
Stripe. All you need is 10-15 minutes it takes to fill the online form and set things up. Done. I always thought the downside was that it was considerably more expensive than others. Not in Ireland, it isn't — unless I'm missing something.
If not, I get why you posted that and guess you wouldn't have posted it if you knew. If you did know however, I don't see why you'd have an issue with this. Links following the progress of successful YC companies absolutely are relevant to the HN community. If nothing else they give motivation to people in later YC batches to keep ploughing ahead despite the difficulties that face all startups.
Witness the popularity of HN posts about Airbnb, Dropbox, Scribd etc. I don't see how this link is any different, especially given that it wasn't a Stripe founder who posted it.