Inevitably, some patrons will be paying more than other patrons as currency values fluctuates back and forth. This will become a massive accounting headache for us if the EUR/GBP tier price drops below the equivalent USD tier price since our software will see the user as having underpaid (and they did.)
We rely on total_historical_amount_cents field to determine how much the patron paid in USD each month, and grant rewards appropriately. One possible workaround is to fuzz the values (ie recognize $9.50 instead of requiring a full $10), but that opens us up to people intentionally pledging less to get a stealth discount. Especially since weād have to do that across all regions, even US, since the API is dead and there likely wonāt be a new field to hint to our software that itās EUR or GBP payment, so we canāt limit fuzzing to only non-USD prices. Plus, fuzzing will break as soon as currency conversion swings too greatly below USD rates.
Updating our software becomes risky since the API is no longer supported, and thereās no documentation or support to help us along this conversion. Itās unclear how we need to workaround this change and no one is available to support us.
IE, does total_historical_amount_cents always reflect the converted amount in USD? If not, how does my software know how much I actually got paid since currency conversion rates change moment to moment?
The current system is more clear to the user where the revenue is going ā users can see the bank is charging that fee instead of it going to the creator.
The existing system works fine for us, requires no new code, and is fairer to all patrons since the cost auto-updates instead of becoming unsyncronized across regions. Thus I am requesting an opt-out button in the creator settings before this change takes effect.
I never thought Iād say this but I agree. Iām in the UK so was looking forward to being able to charge in GBP, however what you have pointed out isnāt something Iād thought of at all (really not great with numbers myself). I would also like to opt out and also as Geoff has said too, WAY too soon to do this on top of the tax raise.
Thanks so much for taking the time to provide your feedback!
Iām happy to confirm that in order to ensure the smoothest transition possible for existing creators and their patrons, we will not automatically turn currency choice on for you. Instead we will give all existing creators the ability to opt-in over the course of two months, from Aug 5 to Oct 5. Then on Oct 5, weāll enable it for everyone.
To ensure a seamless transition for developers using the Patreon API to give access to benefits, weāve made some updates to help build currency-aware functionality on top of both APIv1 and APIv2. For more information on the new attributes and what steps to take, click here. In order to prevent any disruption to your audience and patron experience, we recommend updating your integration before the end of September.
Instructions on how to opt into multi-currency will be provided in our Help Center when we launch this feature later in the week.
Hope this helps provide some comfort and clarity! Let me know if you have any questions.
I was really excited to hear about the currency choice for creators, but disappointed to hear patrons will be able to choose a different currency than my choice, forcing me to pay an extra fee for currency conversion.
Since we cannot change the prices for published tiers, this change is another thing taking a bite out of my earnings and Iām not happy about it. Itās especially problematic for creators with physical reward tiers. On July 1st all packets to the US have gotten a lot more expensive (due to UPUās āOption Vā) and weāll see another hefty increase to shipping prices on January 1st when all countries can change their inbound ālast mile deliveryā fees.
If I now have to eat an additional currency conversion fee, on top of fluctuating pledge values that may fall below the actual tier price due to how your price book works (+ whatās keeping someone from repledging when your price book changes in their favor?) on top of inflation, increased production cost etc. some tiers Iāve had for years, will no longer be sustainable.
My earnings go to Paypal in USD. My expenses are in USD, EUR and GBP. I already pay currency conversion fees for a lot of my expenses. I would welcome the option to charge my Patrons & be paid out in Euroās, but I do not like having to pay currency conversion fees on pledges in different currencies and then again when I spent that money. It adds up.
Iād rather keep everything in USD if thatās going to be the case and encourage my patrons to pledge in USDā¦ Semi-related: please give us the option to adjust tier prices once a year and give patrons an option to accept the price increase or cancel their pledge. I know the majority of my patrons would gladly pay a couple bucks extra.
You are basically saying we wonāt turn it on automatically until we do. Obviously Patreon can handle having it on for some and off for others. Why is this not our choice beyond October?
Patreon mistakenly believes patrons are their customers. They are not. The customers (the ones who pay the fees) are creators. Without creators, Patreon has nothing to offer patrons.
Iām gonna have to say that I guarantee Patreon will realize when it starts losing creators faster than it already is theyāll put in an opt out option.
Personally, I NEED to be able to opt out. What meager income I get from Patreon is the only way Iām paying my bills right now. During a pandemic when a lot of people only have Patreon as a source of income is just greedy.
Let us opt out. The exact thing I predicted is happening ā Iām trying to update my integration to be compatible with the new multicurrency rollout, and Iām stuck with no assistance. Trying to ask Patreon support a simple question that should be somewhere in the doc just results in a form letter about not supporting the API.
I cannot describe how utterly frustrated and disappointed I am in Patreonās senior management at how bad theyāre fumbling this. API should be something that multiplies the usefulness of Patreon. Your competitors recognize it and advertise more robust APIs on their home pages. WTF is my monthly patreon fees going if three years of fees canāt buy 10 minutes of a dev support engineerās time to answer a question (that should already have an example in the docs).
I share the same sentiments. I was excited to finally be able to charge and earn in Euros, but the rollout is going to be a disaster. My patrons are about half/half US and EU based, many of whom get rewards shipped to them. I was already operating on threadbare margins but this whole ālocked pricebookā thing is a joke. Patreonās own graphic shows that some patrons will pay more or less than others based on when they joinedā¦what!? And I as the creator will either be undercharging (giving stuff for free) or overcharging (being an unfair vendor) depending on when people join and how long they stay. And youāre now also saying that we canāt change our prices when the currency conversion changes? I lost one or two patrons (and I already have few) the last time I needed to change my pricing tiers and ask people to re-pledge for one or two tiers, if Iām going to have to change the entire thing and get my whole community to re-pledge thereās going to be a ton of people who fall through.
Iām investigating Ko-Fi as an alternative, since although they donāt have tiers, you can still have subscribers in your own currency and charge what you want.
Hi, @reyna, did this roll out? Is there any way to disable multi-currencies? I donāt want to pay extra fees of 2.5% every time someone pledges in another currency, please