Stripe launches in Australia(stripe.com)
stripe.com
Stripe launches in Australia
https://stripe.com/blog/stripe-in-australia
79 コメント
For anyone from Stripe reading this, having a '401k' plan for Australia makes no sense, but is listed on the AU hiring page.
(I work at Stripe.)
Don't worry, the benefits box just isn't localized (yet). We have a draft of a new jobs page we're working on, but figured we should prioritize launching products over it :).
Don't worry, the benefits box just isn't localized (yet). We have a draft of a new jobs page we're working on, but figured we should prioritize launching products over it :).
I guess they just mean a superannuation plan.
Which is a statutory requirement. So not a big surprise, really. I wonder if an open vacation policy is legal too.
As long as a full time worker is allowed to take their four weeks of annual leave, then it should be fine.
'Open vacation policy' sounds like there's no maximum, so should be no problem.
'Open vacation policy' sounds like there's no maximum, so should be no problem.
Under Australian law, annual leave has to accrue so it can be paid out when the employee leaves. This isn't possible under an open vacation policy.
Seems like a solution would be to just have 4 weeks contracted leave which accrues. Then have an open policy on top of that which allows an employee to exceed 4 weeks per year.
Why on earth not? Accrue leave as normal, just allow the balance to go negative (or bottom out at zero). If it's positive when the employee leaves, pay them out.
Sure it is. You accrue four weeks annually. If you take three weeks, you've got a week saved up. If you take five, you have none saved up.
I wonder if Stripe is planning to launch in New Zealand any time soon - it's very close to Australia :) I'm really keen to stop relying on Paypal for accepting payments.
We are working on New Zealand, but don't have an immediate ETA for an New Zealand beta. Sign up at https://stripe.com/global to be notified when we launch
That is amazing news. Payments are absolutely horrible in NZ, I have been desperate for Stripe to be here for the longest time :)
What are you using now?
Whatever you use it will invariably suck in some way. PX is fine, but getting a merchant account sure isn't. All the stripe clones in NZ are balls. Please, Stripe, whatever you're doing to get to NZ, double it!
Using Paypal at the moment, as te_chris said PX pay is decent but requires a merchant account which is expensive and slow to setup. As far as I am aware their aren't any other decent solutions. Kiwipay could be good but at the moment it isn't really suitable for anything more than casual payments.
Aside from merchant account setup, last time I looked (4 years ago), Payment Express worked out to be really expensive when charging in USD. I think it was in part due to merchant account/currency conversion charges by the bank. It was significantly more expensive than Paypal. I don't know if the situation has changed since then.
I know that the only bank that allows international currency transactions is BNZ so they are likely fairly expensive seen as they have an monopoly on it.
Technically (for those who don't know) they allow multiple currency transactions from one/single account. So you may have 1,000 NZD but it's made out of USD, PHP, AUD etc
Where would you be located? I might have a possible solution for you.
Please, please come to NZ. We are stuck in an awful monopoly of Payment Express and overpriced merchant accounts.
They already fixed that in Belguim.. FOr reference, here is the cost of Ogone in Belgium:
Cheapest subscription: Setup: 300 € and monthly: 65 €
Fraud detection module: Setup: 300 € and monthly 10 €
Per transaction:
* Credit card: 0.37 € + 2% + 0.3 %
* Debit card: 0.37 € + % Tunz
Yeah, i didn't agree to that. Great (developer) support from Stripe, i'm glad they did a beta in Belgium!
+ They have IRC ;-)
Cheapest subscription: Setup: 300 € and monthly: 65 €
Fraud detection module: Setup: 300 € and monthly 10 €
Per transaction:
* Credit card: 0.37 € + 2% + 0.3 %
* Debit card: 0.37 € + % Tunz
Yeah, i didn't agree to that. Great (developer) support from Stripe, i'm glad they did a beta in Belgium!
+ They have IRC ;-)
YES, please! Stripe in NZ would be amazing. Email is in my profile if you need someone to pre-beta test.
Has anyone tried http://swipehq.com? Their website looks good and the cost looks ok too.
I looked at it in some detail but they were a pain to assess. Wouldn't give me any details of the API or feature set unless I created an account... for a non-refundable $200 fee. I pointed out how ridiculous this was, and they said that if I went through their signup process and committed to paying the $200, they would let me look at the documentation without actually paying the fee. It was all so vague and ad-hoc I found it pretty hard to trust whatever might be behind the curtain.
(edit: Looks like fee is now $99, and there's a little more detail on their developers page.)
PX pricing is actually pretty good if you've got high transaction volume. But it's terrible for small biz. Most people I know default to Paypal.
Please Stripe, please come to NZ fast. You've been talking about it for more than a year. I know we must look like smaller-poorer Australia, but I promise there are people here who'd use you!
(edit: Looks like fee is now $99, and there's a little more detail on their developers page.)
PX pricing is actually pretty good if you've got high transaction volume. But it's terrible for small biz. Most people I know default to Paypal.
Please Stripe, please come to NZ fast. You've been talking about it for more than a year. I know we must look like smaller-poorer Australia, but I promise there are people here who'd use you!
I think it might be OK for one-off payments, but I couldn't find anything other than manual setup of recurring payments on their web site. Price wise it's comparable to Paypal though. The trouble for me is that it doesn't integrate with my shopping cart (getdpd.com).
The currency support that hit the AU beta a month or two ago was the big one for me, but the low rate (1.75% + 30c for Australian cards) is a nice touch for those who might normally smash their heads against a bank's merchant API, PayPal or someone like eWay (who I don't have nice thoughts about).
Any idea when similar currency support is coming to Canada? It only does CAD/USD right now.
What would be an example of a traditional rate with other merchants in Australia?
eWay is $49/setup + 2.9% + 30c per transaction at the low end (http://www.eway.com.au/pricing/popular-plans), which is their closest option to Stripe. Now, trying to read their API docs is another thing entirely: they give you a PDF with a couple of examples and that's it - http://www.eway.com.au/docs/api-documentation/token-payments...
PayPal Express Checkout starts at 2.4% + 30c (across all trans). One might use PayPal for other reasons than just their fees (i.e. your user demographic) but their API is still a mess.
PayPal Express Checkout starts at 2.4% + 30c (across all trans). One might use PayPal for other reasons than just their fees (i.e. your user demographic) but their API is still a mess.
It's completely anecdotal, but we've used eWay for the past 2 years. They've been slightly cheaper than the alternatives and pleasant to deal with for the most part, but any technical interaction has been incredibly painful. The dashboard is a pain to use, and they generally seem oblivious to trends in payment gateways.
In addition, two months ago we were unable to process payments for a period of a few hours due to an SSL error on their secure payments API. Any customer not using a hosted payment page was affected. From what has been communicated to me it was an issue with their CDN provider, but I'm still waiting on the full details. I understand things happen, but a lack of communication from someone who processes your payments is really frustrating.
On the other hand, Stripe have been really nice to deal with, and integration has been a breeze. Things might change once we put it into production, but I'd be surprised if they got worse.
In addition, two months ago we were unable to process payments for a period of a few hours due to an SSL error on their secure payments API. Any customer not using a hosted payment page was affected. From what has been communicated to me it was an issue with their CDN provider, but I'm still waiting on the full details. I understand things happen, but a lack of communication from someone who processes your payments is really frustrating.
On the other hand, Stripe have been really nice to deal with, and integration has been a breeze. Things might change once we put it into production, but I'd be surprised if they got worse.
Commonwealth Bank provides MIGS, a low rate I've seen is 0.7%+transaction fee.
Once stripe has 2 day turn around time for bank payments like in the US, we'll be switching for our clients who use PIN.
Bank transfers in AU don't cost anything either.
Once stripe has 2 day turn around time for bank payments like in the US, we'll be switching for our clients who use PIN.
Bank transfers in AU don't cost anything either.
Is it just the 2 day settlement that would make you switch?
Will anyone who signed up for pin be moving to stripe?
Been with PIN since the start.
Will only move if Stripe introduces the 2 day bank transfer feature that the US has.
Will only move if Stripe introduces the 2 day bank transfer feature that the US has.
Happy to offer 2-day settlement (we've got a number of merchants on this already). E-mail [email protected].
Couple of weeks before, had a discussion with SudoPay guys about market share. From my understanding, Pin is already popular in Australia.
Probably not: in the past, Pin has matched stripe's pricing so we'll see if they do it again.
Shoot me an e-mail at [email protected] and we'll see what we can do.
I did this once stripe announced their beta as I had been waiting for some time. The additions of subscriptions and checkout was attractive. Along with the fact that stripe was more established.
Finally! Where I work we're already discussing moving every (all 6 of them) project that we're working on at the moment over to Stripe. I'm so happy, this was a great start to my Tuesday morning!
Can I ask why Stripe and not Pin? I've been using Pin for a number of different projects and have been really happy with it.
Curious why Stripe seems to be the default alternative to PayPal/eWay etc, even though Pin has been established in AU for a while now.
Curious why Stripe seems to be the default alternative to PayPal/eWay etc, even though Pin has been established in AU for a while now.
fantastic news! I just finished a Stripe integration a day or two ago. Everything I had heard about stripe was true. I've done eWay, PIN and now Stripe integration and Stripe is hands down the easiest to get up and running.
Subscriptions in particular are very well designed. Their documentation is outstanding. I was up and running with a multi-tiered subscription setup in 1 day. The checkout flow is particularly awesome.
Subscriptions in particular are very well designed. Their documentation is outstanding. I was up and running with a multi-tiered subscription setup in 1 day. The checkout flow is particularly awesome.
For the uninitiated, is there benefit in using Stripe (etc) over a bank merchant facility, when your business is already transacting $80,000+ per month?
Working with an Australian client at the moment about moving more sales online - I don't want to hold back information about other payment processors, but can't see any benefit over their existing bank facilities. What am I missing?
Working with an Australian client at the moment about moving more sales online - I don't want to hold back information about other payment processors, but can't see any benefit over their existing bank facilities. What am I missing?
I'm not sure what your conclusion would be, but don't assume that your client is correct about their real cost of transacting.
In Australia, banks will usually offer an online merchant account and a payment gateway (you can also use a third party like eway). When I worked in Australia I usually found that using a third party payment gateway worked best in terms of price. The UI can also matter. Some clients spend a lot of time in there manually processing, reviewing, refunding transactions, running reports, etc.. I had good reports from clients using Eway. Bad reports from clients using NAB. (This is 5+ years ago, so YMMV).
If the difference in price isn't really relevant in absolute terms to the overall cost of the project, I would always strongly recommend the option with better software & customer support.
The pricing structures can be complicated. If you really want to understand them, it's better to run it as an audit. What did it cost the client in the last 12 months. What would it cost them using stripe. Take into account monthly fees, per transaction fees (depends on transaction size and on volume), any anti-fraud fees, chargeback fees. You can actually send the info to stripe (or another third party gateway) aand they'll probably do the analysis for you.
You will probably find that your client is actually paying a little more than they think they are.
In Australia, banks will usually offer an online merchant account and a payment gateway (you can also use a third party like eway). When I worked in Australia I usually found that using a third party payment gateway worked best in terms of price. The UI can also matter. Some clients spend a lot of time in there manually processing, reviewing, refunding transactions, running reports, etc.. I had good reports from clients using Eway. Bad reports from clients using NAB. (This is 5+ years ago, so YMMV).
If the difference in price isn't really relevant in absolute terms to the overall cost of the project, I would always strongly recommend the option with better software & customer support.
The pricing structures can be complicated. If you really want to understand them, it's better to run it as an audit. What did it cost the client in the last 12 months. What would it cost them using stripe. Take into account monthly fees, per transaction fees (depends on transaction size and on volume), any anti-fraud fees, chargeback fees. You can actually send the info to stripe (or another third party gateway) aand they'll probably do the analysis for you.
You will probably find that your client is actually paying a little more than they think they are.
Thanks netcan, that's a lot of really useful information.
It all comes down to money right? Doing that volume probably doesn't make sense to use stripe as px and a merchant account is probably much cheaper due to leverage against the banks. I'm ecstatic about stripe though as it's so hard to start taking payments well here in Australasia. It's a massive boon for small operators.
Thanks Chris - I absolutely agree about small operators, and am looking forward to integrating it with some of my other businesses that (sadly) aren't yet anywhere close to turning over a million bucks a year!
Great to see you guys coming to Asia-Pacific.
Can some Stripers on this thread give an estimate as to when Stripe will come to Hong Kong or Singapore?
I am bootstrapping a side project with a colleague and literally the only reason to even consider a UK partnership over a Singapore or Hong Kong one is that we want to use Stripe (or whatever clone gets there first).
Can some Stripers on this thread give an estimate as to when Stripe will come to Hong Kong or Singapore?
I am bootstrapping a side project with a colleague and literally the only reason to even consider a UK partnership over a Singapore or Hong Kong one is that we want to use Stripe (or whatever clone gets there first).
Great news. I have built a number of MVPs for startups that will be very happy to move from PayPal.
I'm so excited for the Norwegian beta! Been needing Stripe for a project for ages!
Me too! I just noticed. I think I've signed up to be notified 40 times.
Awesome! Can't wait until Stripe is launching in Denmark, hopefully soon!
We actually launched our Danish beta earlier this morning: https://twitter.com/stripe/status/491224812958650370. You can sign up for an invite over at https://stripe.com/global.
Any plans for NZ? As you can see with the success of EFTPOS here, we have a history of adopting new payment technologies quickly. I personally have an idea that's just waiting for a proper mobile payment system.
That is awesome! In a project I'm doing we are currently assessing payment gateways and Stripe comes in as a clear first, but since it wasn't previously available for Denmark we had dumped it. Looks like we might not have to do that now!
The alternatives were a bit lacking in Denmark for the kind of payment flow we need. It is reminiscent of the one from Airbnb where the fees are collected in two steps - first from the customer and then for the merchant. We went through Braintree, Paypal, and Paymill among others, but there wasn't a good fit. And it was surprisingly hard to find information about the different payment gateways for a specific country. Really hope we can get access to this beta!
How do you draw invites for the beta and do you do the drawing more than once?
The alternatives were a bit lacking in Denmark for the kind of payment flow we need. It is reminiscent of the one from Airbnb where the fees are collected in two steps - first from the customer and then for the merchant. We went through Braintree, Paypal, and Paymill among others, but there wasn't a good fit. And it was surprisingly hard to find information about the different payment gateways for a specific country. Really hope we can get access to this beta!
How do you draw invites for the beta and do you do the drawing more than once?
Wow, that's so cool! I was already signed up for the beta, so I'll be crossing my fingers for an invite.
This is fantastic! We've recently gotten a bank's merchant account and eWay as a gateway, but I've been impressed with neither. I'm so glad that Stripe is now available here.
Awesome! I've been waiting for Stripe here down under for ages!
What actually prevents Stripe from just being international?
> What actually prevents Stripe from just being international?
The need to partner with a local bank to provide merchant services/accounts. i.e. Pin Payments partners with NAB in Australia, with NAB setting up an "invisible to the user" merchant account. It's part of their model - you just deal with them, not the bank, not anybody else.
The need to partner with a local bank to provide merchant services/accounts. i.e. Pin Payments partners with NAB in Australia, with NAB setting up an "invisible to the user" merchant account. It's part of their model - you just deal with them, not the bank, not anybody else.
I get that's what they do but why do they need to do that for each individual country instead of just running everything through their own bank + only subject to their own state/federal regulations?
Different regulatory requirements and banking systems. For example Stripe still only has support for sending funds to third-party bank bank accounts for US users and US bank accounts.
Someone needs to fix payment culture in Australia and also in Europe. Going to the bar with a large group of people and either paying with:
A) A pocket full of coins
B) A card but only being allowed to pay with one or two for your whole group, is just straight up silly.
Situation B happened to me a million times while I was down there for a year and it's just an annoyance, and carrying a kilo in coins is no fun either. I actually submitted a suggestion to ANZ for them to make some sort of group payment option for restaurants but heard nothing back and couldn't pursue. Hopefully someone can make something easy with Stripe.
A) A pocket full of coins
B) A card but only being allowed to pay with one or two for your whole group, is just straight up silly.
Situation B happened to me a million times while I was down there for a year and it's just an annoyance, and carrying a kilo in coins is no fun either. I actually submitted a suggestion to ANZ for them to make some sort of group payment option for restaurants but heard nothing back and couldn't pursue. Hopefully someone can make something easy with Stripe.
Use... Notes?! You know, money... Coins?! Who uses coins? Secondly nobody is going to refuse 5 payments from 5 cards either or they don't get paid. Simple.
Sweet! And is Stripe going to obtain stripe.com.au ?
Nice work peeps! Definitely needed for Australia.
Yep, amazingly during BETA a major competitor dropped its monthly fee ;).
Going to be tough for that competitor to survive if they don't pivot from a 'Stripe-clone'. Hope they're well funded and well backed.
You need to do a huge volume of transactions to be able to live off 2.6% + 30c, close to two million a month to support a startup with 5 fully loaded employees including the founders.
Working with a lot of Ecommerce sites I know a well established one (attached to 3 bricks and mortar stores) does on average $16k a month. Say on average an Online store is doing 10k/month you're looking at 200 clients to keep the payment processor afloat. Doable but you'd want them to have some runway otherwise people are gonna go with Stripe to know they've got a payment gateway that's not gonna disappear
You need to do a huge volume of transactions to be able to live off 2.6% + 30c, close to two million a month to support a startup with 5 fully loaded employees including the founders.
Working with a lot of Ecommerce sites I know a well established one (attached to 3 bricks and mortar stores) does on average $16k a month. Say on average an Online store is doing 10k/month you're looking at 200 clients to keep the payment processor afloat. Doable but you'd want them to have some runway otherwise people are gonna go with Stripe to know they've got a payment gateway that's not gonna disappear
Is Stripe Japan on the anvil?
What took you so long Susan!