I'm hoping that someone here can assist me with this issue. Stripe support has been underwhelming thus far.
We have a Primary Stripe Account setup in the US
We have customers that will be based out of MX that will connect to the US accounts.
From what we understand here: https://stripe.com/docs/connect/cross-border-payouts there are 2 main criteria that need to occur
We need to make these accounts "Custom"
We need to use the "recipient" option for the account's service agreement.
We also cannot request any other "Capabilities" such as "Card Payments" when setting this up.
Moreover, we have noticed that the moment we use the "Custom" option with Recipient agreement, customers do not have the ability to "Sign In" to their existing Stripe accounts even if they have one. The system always forces them to go through a "new" account setup process. Per Stripe, we are responsible for managing everything including verification of the customer and the customer is NEVER aware of the Stripe account's existence. This has been a hard pill to swallow for some of our larger customers who already have a Stripe account.
Say, we overcome that objection, and say people create new accounts. Now, we're running into a whole new series of problems.
We understand that Stripe requires us to perform separate charges and transfers. Great, we use transfer groups and transfer destination.
However, we also want to use the on_behalf_of parameter so that we attribute the transaction to the connected account for reasons explained here: https://stripe.com/docs/connect/charges-transfers#on-behalf-of
This is where the fun starts. It appears that if you use on_behalf_of, you cannot use "Automatic Payment Methods".
If you specify "card" as a manual payment method type, it will tell you:
You cannot create a charge with the on_behalf_of parameter set to a connected account with transfers but without the card_payments capability enabled.
However, the kicker is that we cannot request card_payments capability for the custom/restricted accounts. So this is a catch22.
So now, we cannot use On Behalf, and essentially, we're acting as the account of record, which is raising alarms in our accounting department.
In addition to that, our customers want to use OXXO, understandably so. This works fine in DEV mode, but when we enable Production, it tells us:
This payment method (oxxo) is not activated for the account specified in on_behalf_of. You can only create testmode oxxo PaymentIntents. You can learn more about this here https://support.stripe.com/questions/i-am-having-trouble-activating-a-payment-method
So, essentially, we are unable to use OXXO w/ or w/o on_behalf.
This makes us think if there are better ways to resolve this issue. We have been trying to get through to Stripe support and their responses have been circular, almost meaningless as they keep pointing us to the documentation and we keep poking holes in their documentation.
Am I missing something here? Looking to see if someone else has had these issues.
Cross-border Payouts as a feature allows US platforms to transfer funds around the world in more countries than Stripe officially in. For example you can accept payments from a customer on your platform and then sends funds to a connected account based in South Africa or South Korea even though Stripe doesn't (at the time of this answer) support those countries for payments.
The overall feature relies on a different type of "agreement" between you and the individual/business you are sending funds to. To do that you have to explicitly set recipient as the service_agreement parameter.
When you go down that path, you can not use on_behalf_of at all. Using on_behalf_of changes a lot of things such as where the payment is being "made from" which Stripe documents here. For that to happen in South Korea or South Africa, Stripe would have to be able to operate and accept payments there. But they can't, and that's why Cross-border Payouts exist in the first place: to let you send funds in countries where Stripe doesn't yet operate. So not using on_behalf_of is entirely expected.
Now, if you don't use on_behalf_of, what you are really doing here is accepting payments yourself, on your US account, through the US. So this limits you to the payment method types that Stripe supports for US accounts. This means you can not use Oxxo for Mexican customers or Konbini for Japanese one. This is a limitation that Stripe likely will lift over time but it's not available today. For example you can accept a lot of European payment methods from the US now which wasn't possible in 2019. In the future, those things will get easier, it's just not the case now.
What I don't fully understand, is why you would go down that path. You clearly say you don't want to be the "merchant of record", you want to do local acquiring, etc. My read is that you simply want to use Destination charges with on_behalf_of. This is supported from US platform to a MX account already. This is something Stripe already supports by default with the "default" services agreement.
While I tried to help with my knowledge, this is really something you have to discuss with Stripe's own support team. They are the only ones that can look at your account details, discuss your business model and understand if they can support you.
Related
I am collecting a payment using Stripe, and want to keep a portion, and send the rest onto another account from another organisation.
Stripe have told me that I have to connect an account. I have done this, Stripe gives me a link which the other organisation pastes into their browser, and all works. I can create a transfer linked to a payment intent.
But, when the link is pasted into the other organistions browser, this message is shown.
______ will be able to see your account data (such as all payment and payout history), including any data created by other business you've connected. They'll also be able to create new payments and take other actions for you.
This seems crazy - I just want to pay them some money, not ask them for full access.
Am I missing a trick?
Stripe Connect is a product/tool that allows accounts to work together to provide goods and services to end customers. There are a few different approaches to how this is configured based on your use case as well as whether you would be acting as the Platform (the one in control) or the Connect Account.
You should review the different Connect Account Types and determine what best matches your use case. Some questions to consider are as follows:
Who is interfacing with the end-customer (you or the other account)?
Who is providing the product/service?
Is this other account providing a service to you in exchange for a cut of the revenue?
On what account should the transactions and customers be stored?
It sounds like, based on the warning message, you were creating the other account to be the Platform and you would be Connect Account. In that cases the other account could make API calls on your behalf using your account token. This would be normal if the other account is providing a service to you like funneling customers to you in some way. A good way to quickly review what approach makes the most sense for your use case is to review the Funds Flow diagrams for the different types of Charges
Direct Charges
Destination Charges
Separate Charges and Transfers
I want to create a platform which will provide a digital service where the customers and connected accounts will be from around the world. Clearly Stripe Connect is the Stripe product to use.
Because many of the connected accounts will be overseas this straight away rules out the use of transfers - unless I explored setting up separate platform accounts in the different overseas countries. (https://stripe.com/docs/connect/capabilities-overview#cross-border-transfers)
So I am left with destination charges where I choose the connected account as the settlement merchant via the on_behalf_of parameter. This means the charge goes against the connected account but I can still make money by charging an application fee.
As the connected account will be invisible to the end customer on the platform it seems inappropriate for the connected account's details to show on the customer's bank / credit card statement. Instead I want the platform's details to show.
Stripe support have assured me it is possible to have only the platform's details. Indeed this part of the API suggests I can control the statement descriptor which shows - https://stripe.com/docs/api/checkout/sessions/create#create_checkout_session-payment_intent_data-statement_descriptor
But another article - https://stripe.com/docs/api/checkout/sessions/create#create_checkout_session-payment_intent_data-statement_descriptor - seems to almost contradict this. It explains
Any additional information that’s displayed on a customer’s statement
is also provided by the same account that provides the static
component (business address, phone number).
Can anybody clarify? Many thanks in advance.
Update
This article appears to settle the matter - https://stripe.com/docs/payments/connected-accounts
Guess I will just have to inform users on my website with a connected account that their details will show on the bank statement.
We would like to know how we can test stripe in LIVE for an e-commerce website? The site basically is an e-commerce website and courses are purchased online, how do we test LIVE transactions without using real-time credit cards in stripe?
The purpose of Stripe test mode is to ensure that you get your code into a perfectly working state, and that each type of transaction you are dealing with is fully covered. You can even validate that WebHooks are working by pointing them at your application's test API endpoints.
There's not really a way of 'testing' inside of the live environment as such - typical practice would be to make a real transaction using a company credit card, or one that you are in control of. You can then logon to Stripe Admin and refund the payment once it succeeds.
This is the same with most payment gateways, although there are some that have test mode built into the live API, and used via a specific header, parameter or tracking identifier. Although, this is really just the same end result - you are still testing in test mode.
Use a 100% off coupon and no monies will be transacted. This should allow you to test the flow of things in livemode and make sure everything is in sync without posing a threat to Stripe as a company or your Stripe account.
Note: If you're testing a stripe subscription, you should immediately end the subscription, and delete the "customer" before you forget and it's ACTUALLY processed the next billing cycle.
Here's an example of creating and using 100% off coupons.
Disclaimer: I have NOT tested this method. But I believe my theory is correct.
You can use Customer Credit Balance (https://stripe.com/docs/billing/customer/balance) and use real credit cards to do some final testing of your live implementation. I just did it, it works perfectly and no charge is being done.
Good luck!
This can be accomplished from the Stripe dashboard in one of two ways. The set up for both methods begins in the same way.
Navigate to the Customers section of the Stripe dashboard, and create a new Customer object for yourself (or your employees)
Once you've created the new Customer, add the card details for the real card that you or your developers will using to test the live Stripe integration. This step is necessary because Stripe uses the card number to associate any test payments you make with the Customer you just created.
With the new Customer still selected, you'll see an Actions dropdown to the top right of the Overview page.
From here, you can select one of two solutions to waive costs for your new Customer:
Create a permanent 100% discount by selecting Apply Coupon and following the New Coupon link to create a coupon that can then be applied to your Customer's account
Create a credit balance for your Customer by selecting Adjust Credit Balance and setting it to a sufficiently high value
I recommend the first as it allows for more control. In particular, coupons can be set to never expire, unlike credit balances that will eventually hit 0 and require you to remember to reset it.
To prevent abuse or avoid creating an exploit for potential attackers, you can even set the coupon to be redeemed only as many times as you intend to redeem it, preventing it from being applied by anyone who doesn't require it to test your Stripe integration. In the below screenshot, I've set it to be one-time use.
So when I run a charge, I'd like to be able to have 15% go to a secondary bank account of mine. What's the preferred way to do this now?
I found a great article on exactly this, using recipients and transfers (https://unicornfree.com/2013/using-stripe-to-divvy-up-revenue), but that's been deprecated and replaced with Managed Accounts. But those docs don't offer a clear way to do what I need.
Anyone seen a working example out there?
It sounds like you're trying to setup a "marketplace" type scenario, in which you would use the Stripe Connect platform and have the application_fee parameter in your request which to collect your 15%.
In that scenario, you create a charge request for $100 from customer A, you can specify an application_fee of 1500 (stripe requires the value in cents) in the API call. Documentation on this can be found here.
The result is that the $85 goes to your recipient, and $15 goes into your personal stripe account, and can be transferred to the bank account of your choosing. On hidden "gotcha" to this is that the stripe processing fee will be taken out of your application fee that you charge, so you won't be getting a true 15% from the transaction.
Note, you will need to have a connected or managed account registered through your connect account in order to properly setup the transaction. A general overview on the pros/cons of connected vs managed can be found here.
I’m integrating authorize.net into my web application. I’ve used the direct post method (DPM)to charge the account initially. However, for each transaction I also need to set up automated reoccurring billing. How would I go about doing this without asking for the information again, particularly when after DPM posts the initial transaction, the credit card data is no longer available?
I also would like to get the status of each reoccurring transaction so it can be confirmed and followed up on if necessary.
You can't do that with DPM as it takes the user's credit card information off of your website so you don't have access to it. If you want to make an initial payment and then use ARB to create a subscription you need to use AIM with ARB.
You need to use the ARB interface in order to do recurring transactions but there are a lot of problems with it, like lack of support (send an email and wait a couple of weeks for a non-helpful response for example) and weak documentation.
Documentation for SOAP interface for Authorize.net ARB:
http://www.authorize.net/support/ARB_SOAP_guide.pdf
And for the XMl interface:
http://www.authorize.net/support/ARB_guide.pdf
ARB programming documentation:
http://developer.authorize.net/api/arb/
I just switched off of Authorize.net to USAEPAY. Here are some reasons why:
1. When you use Authorize.net ARB, your customer comes on the site to sign up, and you send the ARB request to create the subscription and you get back a success code so you give the user the subscription. Then later that night they actually try to collect the first payment and a lot of times this fails, so you get a spreadsheet emailed to you the next day about the problem. This is terrible because now you lost the opportunity to say to the customer at sign up time that the card is declined. Goodbye sale!
2. I don't know if they added this recently but they didn't have a way to verify if a customer's credit card is still valid. Imagine 3 months into a subscription the card is over the limit, or cancelled, or expired etc. You don't know so how do you prompt the customer to put in a new card? You just stop getting paid, unless you want to manually open these spreadsheets and start emailing customers. YUCK.
USAEPAY works much better, the API is easier, its much better documented and you get email responses in 1-2 days and its less expensive. For example, you can query USAEPAY to get a list of successful payments, and verify that you shouldn't deactivate the account for non-payment:
http://wiki.usaepay.com/developer/soap-1.4/methods/getcustomerreport
Before you go too far with AuthNet I highly encourage you to save yourself a lot of pain and contact FranchisePaymentNetwork (FPN) to get set up with USAEpay.
They can even POST BACK to your website to let you know if a transaction is successful or not for recurring billing transactions and you can query it to verify that customer payments are getting collected so you know if you should expire an account or not.
I am not affiliated with USAEpay or Franchise Payment Network except as a satisfied paying customer / consumer of their services.