

To Stripe or not to Stripe in Canada - mikikian
http://www.taskforce-1.com/blog/2012/09/28/to-stripe-or-not-to-stripe-stripe- com-canada/

======
michaelschade
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.

------
seanmccann
_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.

~~~
verelo
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.

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

------
peteforde
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.

~~~
beyondcreed
[http://www.quora.com/How-are-Square-and-Stripe-able-to-
accep...](http://www.quora.com/How-are-Square-and-Stripe-able-to-accept-
payments-on-merchants-behalf-without-requiring-them-to-hold-their-own-
merchant-accounts-with-a-banking-financial-institution?redirected_qid=636540)

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

~~~
zopticity
How does that scale?

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

------
beyondcreed
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.

~~~
michaelschade
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.

~~~
beyondcreed
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?

~~~
michaelschade
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.

~~~
beyondcreed
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

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

