Update to Patreon's New Fee
Added 2017-12-09 08:38:30 +0000 UTCHere's an article on why patreon decided to go with this fee. I'll give you a short version:
Patreon want to go with "upfront charging" the patrons for all creators, meaning like my patrons, all patrons will be charged when they pledge. Also right now if you pledge like on Dec. 31st, you will also be charged on Jan. 1st at the beginning of the month, which will feel like a double charge.
But to make it fair to patrons, instead of charging patrons again at the first of the month, they want to charge patrons on the anniversary of their pledge next month, which is a good move in my opinion.
BUT it means all patron charges will be scattered throughout the month. Compared to a lump sum charge to all patrons at the beginning of the month, a scattered charge will result in a much larger process fee from companies like paypal.
And so patreon has come with this solution to charge such transaction fees back to patrons.
I suggested to them to at least change the % + fix value fee so it is more fair to lower pledges, as well as split the fee with creators. I don't know, there could be a better solution too.
Have fun!
Mehdi
Comments
Stop panicking, read and give a feedback to them <a href="https://blog.patreon.com/not-rolling-out-fees-change/">https://blog.patreon.com/not-rolling-out-fees-change/</a>
Pavlo Pravdiukov
2017-12-14 00:20:40 +0000 UTCI will pause all my donations for a month too as a protest. Next month I'll be back on some platform (or here if things change) and will do a double donation so that nothing is lost for the creators.
Gabriele Bonetti
2017-12-11 19:39:10 +0000 UTCI cancelled all my Patreon pledges in protest at this, but a lot of creators are moving over to MakerSupport as an alternative - it's basically a Patreon clone with much more sensible fees and better ethics. I would love to start pledging to you again if you set up an account over there (or some other alternative platform). Cheers!
2017-12-11 02:03:47 +0000 UTCThank you! I can now understand why they did it but I still think it's a very stupid decision and will cancel my account. I hope you can find an alternative to Patreon.
2017-12-10 15:50:31 +0000 UTCHi Mehdi. I don't want to pay these guys to deliver my support to you. Is it possible for you to give us another way to support you? Thanks.
2017-12-10 13:06:58 +0000 UTCThis seems like a play on Patreon's part to bump their revenue in preparation for either IPO or sale. I can't really imagine why they'd make a change to a system that wasn't broken. Is there really a creator out there that doesn't understand that services that enable them to make money aren't "free"? It's better with Patreon's fee and Stripe transaction charges bundled into the upfront cost the patron pays - no mystery.
Chris Faehl
2017-12-09 20:32:51 +0000 UTCI'm more than happy to give to the people I care even if my pledge is charged on the 31 and then again on the 1st, what I don't like about this change is how patreon is getting a lot more money and it's giving just a little bit more to the creators, to be honest I'll probably close my account at the end of the month, so if you find an alternative to patreon please let me know (even if I have to send you money using paypal)
2017-12-09 13:50:17 +0000 UTCSo much contradiction between the old post and this one. Before it was 7%-15% going to fees and now it’s 2%-10%. What was it? I’m mad. I’m not mad that I am now being asked to pay the fees, I’m mad at how ridiculous their fees were before. Plus the new ones don’t make sense for small donations which I think is the best thing about being able to support multiple creators. I want all my monthly pledges to come out at the same time on the first of the month. I don’t want them scattered all over the place. I would have liked to “add to cart” when I was going through selecting creators to support and then process my transactions all together. Charge me one fixed fee per month/transaction and it’s fine. Those that have a per-post pledge structure obviously need to be handled differently. Let Patrons “load up” their account with one transaction and withdrawal from there without extra fee. There are better ways to solve the processing fee issue. Heck, I’d like to donate to my Canadian creators without having to convert currency. I’m losing 2.5% converting CAD to USD on top of the 30% exchange rate only to have them convert it back to CAD and likely losing another 2.5%. I’d rather just do an e-transfer into their bank account at this point.
2017-12-09 13:03:54 +0000 UTCI sent my own similar feedback to Patreon recommending that pledges at least be debited in a combined transaction so that we're only paying the base fee of $.35 once instead of multiple times. For example, if you only donate $1 to one person, then you pay roughly 40% fee on top of that, per pledge. Versus if you combine two $1 donations as one payment, the damage is only about 21% and saves the patron. I have no need to see my pledges debited on different dates.
2017-12-09 10:49:20 +0000 UTCPatreon claims this "charge upfront" feature was the most requested feature from creators. That might be true, but Patreon choose an expensive way to implement it. There are at least two alternatives they could have explored and, most importantly, discussed with creators and patrons before doing it this way.
2017-12-09 10:34:48 +0000 UTCTotally agree. I'd like to see it how PayPal does sending money to friends and family: You say "I'm sending $10" and then PayPal says "OK, after fees, they will receive $9.70." It's fair, it's honest, it's upfront, and it doesn't come off like a *cough* sleezy *cough* cop-out.
avfusion
2017-12-09 10:02:02 +0000 UTC
