I just want to point out that in Europe we have 0-fee SEPA transfers that also work for regular payments.
I'm not sure why nobody makes use of that more really. There are simple-as-paypal solutions for it, and given the amount that CC processing costs I'd have expected it to be picked up more. Maybe someone here has practical experience to share on why it's not that easy?
Yes SEPA transfers are free in the Eurozone, which as you know is a subset of “Europe,” but there is the tricky issue of VAT — which might be due on your donations.
This might actually be the right question to ask, thanks for poking. :)
From a customer's perspective, fraudulent transactions are handled in the best way possible. Here's Stripes docs on it [1]:
> Customers can dispute a payment through their bank on a “no questions asked” basis up to eight weeks after their account is debited. Any disputes within this period are automatically honored.
> After eight weeks and up to 13 months, a customer can only dispute a payment with their bank if the debit is considered unauthorized. If this occurs, we automatically provide the bank with the mandate that the customer approved. This does not guarantee cancellation of the dispute; the bank can still decide that the debit was unauthorized and the customer is entitled to a refund.
> Unlike credit card disputes, SEPA Direct Debit disputes are final and there is no process for appeal. If a customer successfully disputes a payment, you must contact them if you want to resolve the situation.
So for a small company I can see how this process would be stressful. Although I'm not sure what the rate of fraud by the customers would be. After all, the customer still signed a contract. But that would likely need litigation then.
So, I haven't been on the vendor side of that. Not sure how much more stressful it is than CC, and if it's worth a few % of your revenue...
What you are describing here are SEPA direct debits. Many countries including the USA have a similar instrument. While it is free for the consumer from whom money is being collected, it is generally not free for the business that is collecting the money. So in that way, it is the same as credit cards, but the fee is a lot less.
True, but if the fees are a lot less then the question remains if they're just not worth the hassle, or if there are other reasons why adoption in companies (that I have seen) has been slow.
Regardless, an organization like github should be able to handle this, if they wanted to.
I'm not sure why nobody makes use of that more really. There are simple-as-paypal solutions for it, and given the amount that CC processing costs I'd have expected it to be picked up more. Maybe someone here has practical experience to share on why it's not that easy?