(I work at Stripe, based in the UK.)

Our pricing in EU countries where we've launched (UK + Ireland) starts at 2.4% + 20p (we've revised pricing for each country when we launch out of beta). We regularly give volume pricing well below 1.8% - so at both ends, considerably cheaper than the range quoted above.

Also, which country are you in? Stripe is available in full production-ready beta in France, Germany, Spain, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Sweden and Finland, with more countries in the coming weeks - keep an eye on https://stripe.com/global for updates.

You can sign up and start using Stripe to process live transactions instantly in all our beta countries - this is a key requirement for us as we expand globally.