Addressing Patreon's Fee Change
Added 2017-12-08 00:23:28 +0000 UTCAlright guys, for those of you who didn't know it yet - Patreon will be changing the way they charge processing fees starting December 18th.
From then on, patrons will be charged a processing fee (2.9% + 0.35 cents) on top of their regular pledge. Previously that fee was covered by us, the creators, but Patreon saw fit to place that burden onto patrons instead.
The benefit for me as a creator will be that the payout of my pledges should now be consistent at 95%, where previously it fluctuated between 80-88%. In reality it fluctuated more strongly than that, for which I still don't know the reason.
It looks as though Patreon will also earn a significant amount more from this way of charging, and while it is not inherently wrong for a business to want to earn more money (after all, that's what most of us creators are trying to do all the time too), it is definitely scummy of them to try and pass it off as a "change to benefit creators", as it really mostly benefits themselves.
The downside is obviously that you guys will be paying more for your pledges. For your convenience, here's a list of what my pledge tiers will now cost you, and the percentage increase that is compared to what was previously charged.
$2 = $2.41 = 20%
$5 = $5.49 = 9.8%
$7 = $7.55 = 7.9%
$70 = $72.38 = 3.4%
It is clear that this change will impact people who pledge low amounts the most comparatively. If some of you now need to be more selective about who you're pledging to and how much, know that I completely understand if you need to adjust or withdraw your pledge to me. In fact, if that is the case I would encourage that you stick with those artists who need it most, and since Patreon is not the majority of my income I do not count myself as one of them. I'm comfortable enough to take that hit - others may not be. It sucks to have to choose so if you do I hope this will make it a bit easier.
I should not have to reiterate that I'm grateful for every bit of support that you guys have shown me, big or small, for a long time or only recently, but I will anyway. Thank you all, and I hope that despite this news you will have a good and festive last month of the year!
Comments
That definetly sounds weird... What i mean is... i pledge to you with x dollars... i dont know how much of this arrives, but with the recent changes it should be nearly the same... then there will be this new fee, after that VAT applies and then the whole thing gets send to paypal and converted into euros. So it would be nice to have that amount that gets charged at paypal, precalculated so that i see "aha caraid gets 20$ while i have to pay 23,34$ if i pledge this amount" ... maybe you got a lot more pledges, or changes this month? I can remember that i got access to your stuff on the first month, even though Patreon only charged me for the next month and following.
2017-12-08 13:07:13 +0000 UTCThey should definitely be more transparent, and I wouldn't mind at all if my patrons knew how much of their money actually goes to me. Last month was particularly strange. My front page said that I had about 640 USD in pledges - yet my payout was $398. Now, the difference between what the front page says and the actual payout is always there - but it's never been that much before, and I'm not sure what caused it. It wasn't just cancelled or fraud pledges - it just seemed like there was a mix-up with the fees. I had just contacted Patreon's support about this issue a few days before they announced the change. I imagine that at the moment my complaint is being completely drowned out by concerns about the change, so I may never know what made that difference.
2017-12-08 12:32:16 +0000 UTCi wrote this elsewhere. I'll repeat it here: ok. So... i just read a blog post. And, as i suspected, this pledge move on Patreon is just a move to make "payments upfront" possible. "Never explain with malice what simple idiocy can explain it." in this case patreon thought that since patrons would want their pledge to last "a month"... đ€Š they are splitting the payment process into micropayments so, when i said that the "per transaction fee" was identical... apparently i was right, i just did not think that the people at patreon would be as idiotic as to think that people could not hold it together and wait the right moment before pledging or that they could not accept that pledging near the end of a period was going to be detrimental. Basically they are covering their asses for a problem that is not there because it happens too few times and in the meantime they are making life impossible for everybody đ€Š They think that if people were to be free to pledge at any moment they would pledge more often. đ€Š I think they think money grows on trees or something. People are more worried about wasting a lot of money very often than "donating to a cause" every now and then as was seen by people pledging at the last moment before collection. So by allowing the "month" to be flexible people will be continuously wasting a lot of money on collection fees. đ€Š I'm facepalming so hard that i think i'll switch to :headdesk:ing in order to find something softer for my forehead
Simone Spinozzi
2017-12-08 12:05:20 +0000 UTC
