Why can’t we have a balance in each currency and then choose how we payout? For example, if I receive USD 100 and GBP 25, I would have balances of USD 100 and GBP 25 in Patreon. I could then:
In the proposed system, the payout currency is also used to determine the pricing levels for each Tier.
For example, if I choose to payout in USD, then my Tiers must be specified in USD.
I can’t see any reason to link these two concepts - the payout currency and the tier pricing currency.
For example, most of my Patrons are in the US, but I’m located in Europe. To get the most stability, I would like to keep my Tiers specified in USD (and converted to GBP and EUR as appropriate), but I would probably want to payout in EUR. I suspect that’s not such an unusual constellation.
doing some cursory searching on various social media (twitter, reddit) people are immediately losing like 20% of their income by opting in. is that correct?
Curious to hear peoples’ thoughts on fixing the “foreign currency” price for a Patron to the price at the time the Patron signed up. Patrons who sign up to the same Tier at different times could be paying different amounts.
If true, that goes against everything Patreon has been saying and promising since the beginning. I’m reticent to opt-in to see. I guess I’ll wait for the hammer to fall in October
Basically, along with all the other things, this takes pricing decisions away from creators and hands it over to Patreon.
Per Alecxis in the Patreon Community Discord:
The confusion point of earnings “dropping” is actually a display issue! This looks like an error in the UX display, and our engineering team is working to fix this at the moment. Rest assured you still have the same earnings.
A pretty terrible bug for people to witness during a rollout like this.
If you set your currency to Euro, there is still a $ sign on the main page next to your earnings. But the amount of money shown is converted to Euro. So maybe that’s the reason why people assume that they have lost 20 percent or something.
I have been using multi-currency during the beta. Overall, Patreon has build a good system. But I already assumed that it is all way too complicated and would result in confusion and some valid criticism.
I have seen that new Patrons mostly choose their local currency (Euro in my case) when signing-up. If they figure it out they choose US-Dollar, as it is actually way cheaper for them thanks to the weak US-Dollar.
I think this multi-currency thing is nice to have for bigger Patreon sites, who actually reach a global audience. If you offer content that only caters to certain markets, it would really have been better to just build a system where people can choose one currency for patrons to pay in and the payout for creators.
This would probably have been possible if you had build this from the start (option for one currency and multi-currencies). That would have catered better to the needs of all creators.
This, please!
Okay, another thing about the whole multi-currenccy thing… How can I actually change my page currency when my page is already launched (my writing account was launched last year, so I couldn’t choose Euros back then). I want to change it to Euros, but the page says:
Page currency cannot be changed because your creator page is launched or was previously launched. Learn more
The page linked above doesn’t actually give any information about this situation, nor does this page.
You guys really need to work on your communication and knowledge base!!! Linking to a page that doesn’t have the information youre suggesting it should have is NOT helpful.
This is, IMHO, more evidence that Patreon incorrectly believes that patrons are their customers. They aren’t. I am Patreon’s customer and the patrons are my customers. This is not a one-off thing - changes are implemented for new accounts, but those of us who have been around for some time either do not have access or are forced to accept them.
Patreon needs to a) open up choice of payout currency/page currency to everyone; b) allow creators to set prices, including currencies; c) listen to what we have to say.
Cf the changes made to the Patron Manager which have been and are a giant Charlie Foxtrot situation. Or the ability to delete patrons without blocking them (which is both creator AND patron unfriendly).
I agree.
At the moment I’m wondering if I’m supposed to first take down my page, then select the currency I want to be displayed in my page and then relaunch.
Although this didn’t work in the past…
ETA: I just noticed in my new account that I can’t change the currency either. I had chosen Euro there and just wanted to check what the options are now.
So… once chosen it’s chosen forever???
It wouldn’t surprise me. That’s just one of many locked-in choices.
This is coming in the near future. Just read the FAQ.
I may have missed it. Which FAQ do you refer to? (serious question)
Just to be clear, I was not talking about the Payout currency change (which is coming sometime in the coming months per several articles), but the change to the Page currency. So far I haven’t found any FAQ that explains how I can change that once it’s chosen and your page has been launched, nor have I found any FAQ that tells us when we will be able to change this.
Yes, I’ve had the same experience, which was unnerving at first but then I wondered if it might be showing me the sterling amount of income whilst still displaying $ rather than £ before the income figure?
— Jack
Hello all,
Since opting in 24 hours ago, I’ve experienced highs and lows.
I was excited to see the new feature arrive as I’m convinced that most of my patrons would prefer to pledge in their local currency.
I’m similarly convinced that many of my UK crowd haven’t pledged because they’ve previously felt railroaded into dollars and just don’t like it.
I was very disappointed to see that there would be a 2.5% conversion charge, which, as was pointed out further up, feels very steep on top of the 5% Patreon already deduct from our income.
I soon decided to swallow that bitter pill as I agree with Patreon that my increase in revenue will more than make up for it (which doesn’t mean that I approve of Patreon charging such a fat conversion rate).
When I did it, I then put out a message to all my Active patrons with the suggested wording in Patreon’s email. I also included my Declined patrons as I figured that might be a way to win some back.
The messaging process has been double-edged.
Firstly, I can’t stand the messaging feature. It’s incredibly clunky, confusing and full of traps.
This is the first time I’ve put out a message to all my patrons but I thought I’d take the plunge, particularly as Patreon assured me of this when I started writing:
BUT it transpires that’s not true!
Somebody replied to me.
So I replied to them.
Then I instantly received about 20 messages saying “I don’t think this is for me, Jack!”
Very embarrassing and thank goodness the message didn’t contain sensitive information.
So, I then had to put out another message apologising and it’s all taken up a huge amount of my day.
Why on earth does it work like that? And why is the typing field so small?
I’ve got so many other gripes with the messaging feature, but I’ll post that elsewhere… 
Back to the matter in hand…
Then I received lots of messages saying “my currency has been switched automatically” so I didn’t have to put the message out anyway…
…HOWEVER…
…I’m also glad that I did put out the message as many of my patrons are increasing their pledges!
They’re adjusting it to the same figure amount but in GBP rather than USD. To me, that’s a very useful insight into a patron’s mindset.
Today alone, my income has increased considerably because of the latter and that is good! 
I have already won back two declined patrons as well, so that is extra-good!
Like @Funkybun, I’m slightly alarmed to see that my overall income figure appears to have dropped by some 25% but I’m assuming it might be a simple glitch — that the income figure is now actually sterling but still displaying a $ symbol instead of £. I do hope so!
In short, I’m pleased that Patreon are trying to give us so much of what we want but, sadly, it’s been fraught with difficulties for me.
It feels like the infrastructure (messaging in particular) isn’t properly in place and is too clunky to support major changes, particularly when communication is key.
I am very pleased that my income is increasing, though. Mind you, it feels like the increased income is merely covering my time dealing with the irritation and confusion! 
Sorry that this has been such a long reply — I had a lot more to say than I realised.
Best wishes to you all and I hope this helps in some way.
Keep on keeping’ on…
— Jack
Could I have the pay out in the currency that Parteons pay?
I have costs in USD but I live in New Zealand, this way I can convert to the appropriate currency when I need and not have to convert twice.
