Answers to everything you're wondering about the Payment app, and the integration with Stripe.
No, we are not owned by Stripe. Payment was created in January 2015 to fill a need for ourselves, to sell items at our garage sale. We integrated with the Stripe API to allow you to connect your account to the Payment app and collect charges.
We currently offer the BBPOS Chipper 2X BT in the U.S., which is a Bluetooth, PCI compliant reader that is pre-certified with Stripe. In addition, we offer the countertop Verifone P400 card reader in Canada. You can compare and order card readers to use with the app here: Card Reader Comparison
Except in special circumstances, card readers are typically not able to be returned and refunds are not processed. It is up to you, the customer, to ensure that you need the reader and the app supports all of the functionality you require to use a card reader.
If your card reader can be returned, there will be a 20% restocking fee applied to your refund to cover our internal costs of shipping, packaging and inventory management. You are also responsible for the cost of shipping the item back. This is non-negotiable.
Payment charges an additional 1% fee for any charge created within the app, regardless of if it was a manual charge, charge with a card reader or a subscription.
The fees you pay with Stripe may vary depending on your collection mechanism, country, currency or the card being charged: Stripe Pricing. Generally speaking the U.S., your Stripe fees are 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction. If you are using the Stripe Terminal (card reader), those fees are reduced to 2.7% + 5¢ per transaction.
Absolutely not. You're welcome to charge as much as you'd like whenever you'd like. We understand that your volume may change month to month, which is why it doesn't make sense to charge monthly minimums or subscription fees.
Stripe may offer special pricing for 501(c)(3) status companies. Since Payment is a 3rd party app, we can't automatically recognize these types of organizations and thus are unable to waive our fees automatically at this time.
Non-profit companies can also opt for standard non-profit card rate at 2.2% + 30¢ per transaction for Visa and Mastercard transactions and 3.5% for AMEX when using the Stripe Terminal card reader.
As always, you can check on the status of your transfers at any time by visiting: Stripe Balance & Payouts
The timing of Stripe transfers depends on your status of your account, when you created it and how many charges you have collected. The first transfer may take up to 14 days, with subsequent transfers happening on a rolling 2 day basis.
You can read more about transfers here: Stripe Transfers/Payouts documentation.
Payment can support any currency that is currently supported by Stripe. In addition, you can also change the currency in the event that you're traveling and need to charge in something other than your default currency. You can view the entire list of supported currencies. The Stripe Terminal (card reader) can only be used with USD.
No, everything is stored at Stripe. The only piece of information we store on your device is your API keys to connect to Stripe. If you delete the app, all of these keys are removed.
If there is a problem with your Stripe account, you can email Stripe using this form. If there is a problem with the app (crashing, unexpected behavior, feature requests, etc), you can email the Payment for Stripe team via: [email protected]
Any storefront that utilizes Stripe for payments can work seamlessly with Payment. This includes some of the larger platforms like Squarespace, Shopify, Bigcommerce, BigCartel, Weebly and WooCommerce. Your inventory from these stores are NOT linked to the app, you will just receive payments to the same Stripe accounts.
Stripe supports payments all over the world and supports all of the countries Stripe supports. See all Stripe supported currencies and sign up to be notified when Stripe is available in your country. Stripe Terminal (card readers) are only available for accounts based in the U.S.
You can simply delete the app from your device. As an extra precaution, you can also log in to your Stripe account and deauthorize the Payment for Stripe application.
Credit card decline reasons are not always obvious. Here's a quick guide with what to look for.
There are several reasons why a credit card can be declined using the Payment for Stripe app. The reasons are generally surfaced in the app after a charge with a descriptive label outlining the reasoning. There are two possible reasons why a credit card payment can fail:
Card issuers have automated systems that determine whether the charge should be authorized or not. The algorithms look at various signals instantaneously, from spending habits, account balance and credit card information, as well as location of the charge. Unfortunately, not all of the information that led to the decline is shared with Stripe, and subsequently to the Payment app. In rare cases, card issuers may also provide helpful explanations, but generally, card decline reasons can be hard to track down.
In some cases, the type of restrictions on the credit card can also cause certain declines. For example, using an FSA/HSA card to create a charge for a non-medical payment.
In addition, geographic location can also play a role in declined or failed payments. If credit cards are issued in a different country than your Stripe account, you may be at a higher risk of fraud, and thus risk a higher rate of failed payments.
Every Stripe account comes with automated fraud verification for every single charge made on the Stripe network. The reason this is helpful is simple: Stripe processes billions of dollars in transactions every single day, scanning and identifying trends that give your Stripe account real time feedback on fraud across a variety of mediums. In addition, the Radar prevention tool can also be used to scale up and down your protection, ultimately putting you in control of how finicky your payment protection should be.
One of the easiest ways is by using a PCI-compliant card reader, such as Stripe Terminal. Not only does using a card reader give you an abundance of new ways to collect payment methods like Apple Pay and Google Pay, but you'll also be able to accept chip-enabled cards; further preventing fraud. Although manually inputting card numbers is supported by the Payment app, they are still treated by payment gateways and issuers like an online purchase would be, as there is no evidence that the card was “present” at the time of the transaction.
In some cases, it may also be helpful to provide additional information with the charge. At the very least, including a billing zip or postal code to be validated with the credit card can help exponentially, but other information including name on the card and billing address can also be validated and checked against known fraudulent transactions. Lastly, providing a billing email address also allows Stripe Radar to check to see if that email address has been used across the Stripe network (globally) for other types of fraud.
Decline Code | Description |
---|---|
authentication_required |
The card was declined as the transaction requires authentication. |
approve_with_id |
The payment cannot be authorized. |
call_issuer |
The card has been declined for an unknown reason. |
card_not_supported |
The card does not support this type of purchase. |
card_velocity_exceeded |
The customer has exceeded the balance or credit limit available on their card. |
currency_not_supported |
The card does not support the specified currency. |
do_not_honor |
The card has been declined for an unknown reason. |
do_not_try_again |
The card has been declined for an unknown reason. |
duplicate_transaction |
A transaction with identical amount and credit card information was submitted very recently. |
expired_card |
The card has expired. |
fraudulent |
The payment has been declined as Stripe suspects it is fraudulent. |
generic_decline |
The card has been declined for an unknown reason. |
incorrect_number |
The card number is incorrect. |
incorrect_cvc |
The CVC number is incorrect. |
incorrect_pin |
The PIN entered is incorrect. This decline code only applies to payments made with a card reader. |
incorrect_zip |
The ZIP/postal code is incorrect. |
insufficient_funds |
The card has insufficient funds to complete the purchase. |
invalid_account |
The card, or account the card is connected to, is invalid. |
invalid_amount |
The payment amount is invalid, or exceeds the amount that is allowed. |
invalid_cvc |
The CVC number is incorrect. |
invalid_expiry_year |
The expiration year invalid. |
invalid_number |
The card number is incorrect. |
invalid_pin |
The PIN entered is incorrect. This decline code only applies to payments made with a card reader. |
issuer_not_available |
The card issuer could not be reached, so the payment could not be authorized. |
lost_card |
The payment has been declined because the card is reported lost. |
merchant_blacklist |
The payment has been declined because it matches a value on the Stripe user's block list. |
new_account_information_available |
The card, or account the card is connected to, is invalid. |
no_action_taken |
The card has been declined for an unknown reason. |
not_permitted |
The payment is not permitted. |
offline_pin_required |
The card has been declined as it requires a PIN. |
online_or_offline_pin_required |
The card has been declined as it requires a PIN. |
pickup_card |
The card cannot be used to make this payment (it is possible it has been reported lost or stolen). |
pin_try_exceeded |
The allowable number of PIN tries has been exceeded. |
processing_error |
An error occurred while processing the card. |
reenter_transaction |
The payment could not be processed by the issuer for an unknown reason. |
restricted_card |
The card cannot be used to make this payment (it is possible it has been reported lost or stolen). |
revocation_of_all_authorizations |
The card has been declined for an unknown reason. |
revocation_of_authorization |
The card has been declined for an unknown reason. |
security_violation |
The card has been declined for an unknown reason. |
service_not_allowed |
The card has been declined for an unknown reason. |
stolen_card |
The payment has been declined because the card is reported stolen. |
stop_payment_order |
The card has been declined for an unknown reason. |
testmode_decline |
A Stripe test card number was used. |
transaction_not_allowed |
The card has been declined for an unknown reason. |
try_again_later |
The card has been declined for an unknown reason. |
withdrawal_count_limit_exceeded |
The customer has exceeded the balance or credit limit available on their card. |
The list above is directly from Stripe. For a complete list, as well as suggested next steps, please visit: https://stripe.com/docs/declines/codes
Reduce fraud and look more professional with a pre-certified PCI-compliant card reader from Stripe Terminal.
Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance is an official policy, created by the major credit card companies and PCI Security Standards Council to ensure the overall security of credit card transactions. The guidelines refer to both technical and operational standards that all businesses must follow to protect consumer credit card data provided by cardholders.
PCI compliance helps you, as a merchant, as well as payment gateways, to avoid fraudulent activity and to reduce cardholder data breaches.
The short answer is no. Stripe assumes this risk on your behalf, as they are the ones that store all cardholder data.
In addition to the aforementioned benefits, there are also varying levels of PCI compliance based on the number of transactions processed yearly.
PCI DSS Compliance Levels |
Level 1 | 6M+ transactions per year |
Level 2 | 1-6M transactions per year | |
Level 3 | 20K-1M transactions per year | |
Level 4 | Less than 20K transactions per year |
The BBPOS Chipper 2X BT from Stripe Terminal is pre-certified with Stripe, meaning that there is nothing additional your business will have to do to become PCI compliant. Because the connection from Stripe Terminal only communicates with Stripe, you do not need to store any cardholder information on your own servers. Everything is stored securely at Stripe, with the brightest minds in the industry protecting the data.
The Payment for Stripe apps are Verified Stripe Partners, which have already integrated with Stripe Terminal. In essence, this means that the Payment for Stripe apps, while using all of the proper tooling and software development kits from Stripe, are also pre-certified to be PCI compliant. The Payment for Stripe apps do not store any cardholder data, as all information is just passed along to Stripe using the highest security standards available.
In addition, when manually keying in cardholder information, the Payment for Stripe app has also completed a PCI-DSS Self Assessment (the most recent standard from May 2018) to the satisfaction of both Stripe and the major credit card companies. Since Payment for Stripe does not store any cardholder data, there is no risk of a data breach.
The only company you have to worry about having your cardholder's financial information is Stripe.
Learn more about the Stripe Terminal Card reader for the Payment app: Card Readers
Don't let a lack of Stripe Account Verification disrupt your business and cash flow.
When creating a Stripe account, you, as the business owner or representative, will need to provide several layers of documentation before your account is enabled, which unlocks the ability to take payments and have payouts to your bank account.
Since the Payment app is a Stripe Verified Partner, and utilizes the Stripe Connect Platform for apps, extensions and integrations, you may be required to provide additional information before being able to use the Payment app.
The information that you may need to provide depends on several factors, including:
Stripe will send you an email notification if your Stripe account requires further verification. In some countries, Stripe is required to collect, verify and maintain the identify information for individuals associated with a Stripe account. These requirements are imposed by financial partners and regulators, intended to promote transparency and prevent bad actors from criminal acts.
Lack of identity verification may result in your Stripe account being permanently closed.
For the United States, verification attempts may take minutes (if automated) or hours to complete, if a manual review is required. If Stripe is unable to verify the information, your account may not be able to collect payments or make payouts to your bank account.
For companies, LLCs and partnerships looking to have card payments and transfer capability, the following items may be necessary:
For card payments to be enabled, a validated city, state and ZIP code for your company address is required. If the address cannot be verified before 30 days or $1,500 USD in payments, your card payments may be disabled. Below is a list of acceptable documentation to verify your business address:
In some instances, Stripe may be unable to collect and verify the proper information to verify your Stripe account. In these scenarios, you may be asked to upload additional information like a government issued photo ID to verify manually.
Please note, the verification requirements may vary by country and/or region. You can see a list of additional requirements on Stripe's website.
Reviews of your Stripe account can vary, but typically take up to 1 business day for the Stripe Compliance team to review and complete. To ensure expedition of processing your requests, make sure you upload all documents at one time, via your Stripe Dashboard. Incomplete documentation will certainly delay the process.
Since the business documents you are uploading may be highly sensitive in nature, Stripe will only accept documents when uploaded through your Stripe Dashboard. This means that you should log in to your Stripe account, and follow the links below. Stripe will NOT accept documents submitted via email, including to [email protected]
Learn more about why your payments may be disabled: Blog: Stripe Account Payments Disabled