Oh, that sucks, I’m sorry. I’m at some loss but not nearly a net. It weird that userbases can behave so differently.
I’ve been as vocal against the change as anyone and I still am, I think it’s stupid, but I actually have to admit that I’m now UP on patrons since the change was announced and I made a post about it.
I don’t expect that to last and probably after the charges start it will drop but I thought that was an odd quirk compared to other’s experiences.
@mpj I suppose one factor is the type of patron. You’re targeting programmers, who by and large have well-paying jobs. Someone doing teen-oriented makeup tips, or art instruction videos may well have more price-sensitive patrons.
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WHY IS PATREON NOT PLANNING TO KEEP BATCHING CHARGES??
Hi Carla,
I see that you’re trying to put your finger in the dam here and also hope you’ll be open with us / honest in the face of unhappiness.
Here’s my question:
On THIS PAGE: https://patreon.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/204606125-How-do-you-calculate-fees-
I’m now reading: “Patreon reduces processing fees by batching charges at the beginning of each month. For example, if a patron is paying more than one creator each month, Patreon only charges the patron once for all of the pledges. This reduces processing fees by reducing the total number of transactions, and the lower fee is split among the creators.”
Why would you change this from batching to non-batching? Seems like Paypal will collect a lot more from our patrons then, taking money out of MY pocket and their pocket. I get your change for the fees going to patrons, but the change from batching makes no sense to me.
Isn’t "reduc[ing] processing fees by reducing the total number of transactions, and the lower fee is split among the creators.” something you’d want to keep happening?
Please help me understand.
Seth
That’s already been answered, in the blog post update: they want to stop charging patrons on the first of the month, and switch to charging on the anniversary of their pledge date each month.
Okay. What’s the reason for that? And I’m not worried about someone opting in, downloading my content and then skipping out. Or, if there’s another fear of people getting charged twice for their first month, this isn’t the solution.
Lisa, please don’t jump in if you don’t have the answer. I’m asking for the why here. Because this change, to do a whole lot of individual charges seems to be nothing about patron vs creator paying. It’s something else entirely. Am I missing a clear explanation for this?
Again, that was answered in the blog post update. You should probably read that, instead of biting my head off for telling you it’s there.
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Okay. Apologies for not knowing about the blog post update. But do we really see this as making sense: the problem of up front charges vs. monthly and people downloading and then defecting? Seems like a small issue making a much bigger set of costs for patrons.
Maybe if we had the option of having everyone charged at once (each month)?
Honestly, maybe it’s too much about a little are we/I overthinking?
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Thanks.
One other thought:
I’ve commented and suggested the option of using the Patreon wallet instead of abolishing it, to allow users to batch up payments. Others have mentioned this as well.
There are speculations that they don’t want to do this because it means there are money transmitter regulations in place that would completely gimp the entire platform if they allowed users to maintain a balance.
Maybe another option then would be for payments to charge the first of each month still either way, but to pro-rate payments, so they can all still be charged in a group. That way you can batch payments without requiring Patreon to maintain a balance, it doesn’t cause users to be double-charged (just partially charged if they sign up late in the month), and users still get immediate, up-front access.
You’d basically pay less if you sign up in the middle of the month, but to prevent abuse, that wouldn’t come into play until your second month pledged. As an example, if you sign up at a $10 tier to get the rewards, and you sign up on the 25th, your entry month you still pay $10 so you don’t get full rewards at a reduced rate. Then the next month is like $1.67 for just that first complete month. From there on out it’s $10 per month. This would prevent people from swooping in on the last day of a month and getting rewards at a 30th of the cost.
As far as fees go, while there would be an individual fee for a first-time pledge as well, it’d at least mean any recurring payments get batched. This would allow Patreon to do batch processing without having to maintain a balance for anyone, which should reduce fees (for both Patreon and its users).
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I hear a lot of examples here about wallets, pro-rating, and adding options for creators. One thing that should be taken in consideration here is that Patreon also needs to keep the payment model simple and understandable for Patrons.
Having multiple different options, or clever variants that are hard to communicate, will create confusion among Patrons. Product simplicity is also desirable from the creator side, the more variants and nuances there are to the Patreon product there more time creators will have to spend understanding it, and it will also mean that each different variant will be given less love from engineering and designers because their time is spread over multiple different solutions.
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I don’t personally require it at all, but in the blog post, up front charges is cited as by far the most requested feature by creators.
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- I don’t think they should change how charge up front works.
I know a lot of people would abuse it and do a last minute pledge and download content, they should be punished if they “forgot” to remove the pledge the day after.
If patrons are upset on how they pay on 30th/31th and get charged again on the 1st, they should check the FAQ or simply ask the creator, it isn’t a trouble for creators to let patrons understand how the payment works.
- Why not just switch how they charge processing fee from creators to patrons?
Since it’s a trouble to make a system that renew based on their pledge date, why not just stick to the same system you guys have already? I think it’s better that patrons get charged all at once (If all the creators it pledge are all charged up front) instead of being charged multiple times in a month, not only it confusing, it’s also annoying to patrons. Just add the sum they pledge *2.9%+0.35. It’s simple and not confusing, also they won’t fee like they got charged multiple times for nothing.
Imagine you as a patron have to remember when you pledge and when you’ll be charged. Today you have 2 buck as balance for food, the next thing you know the balance only have a few cent left.
Not only that patrons don’t need to pay INDIVIDUAL FEES, they’ll also know their balance of the month straight away.
I’m sure US creator have better options, but I am a non US creator, it’s hard for me to find a platform like this for international use. Pulling them in is even harder than so, since most of them are non US citizens, that means they have to pay a lot of fees & low currency exchange before even touching Patreon’s *2.9%+0.35 fee. That bring it to the 3rd point.
- Lowering the fees.
I’m not sure what is the fee for, but I think if I proceed a payout, I am gonna get charged by Paypal anyways. Please do correct me if I am wrong. If I’m wrong, 2.9%+0.35 “service fee” is still quite high (equivalent to Paypal charges). What is these third party fees?
Reminder: Patrons are here to support creator how ever much they can, it’s not essential in their life. You can reward a donation but you can’t over charge donation just because you’re the middleman.
It likely is, however their current model of the Charge Upfront is not even useful to some of us that need it.
Has there been any official update on this yet? I know the tweet said this week sometime and it’s coming onto COB Tuesday.
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Nothing yet that i’ve seen. Just the promise of info this week and no specific dates. 
I’ve lost over $150 in pledges since Patreon instituted this new fee structure. And yes, every single patron indicated in their backer exit survey that this was the reason.
$150 may not be a lot to somebody who makes $10k a month, but even me, making $2500 (now $2300) a month, this stings.
not only lost ~$50 s far, but reading exit surveys got less fun as well:
“Removing most of my pledges to protest the new fee system.”
So… Yeah…
The sad thing is all those patrons, at least mine anyway so I’m guessing others too, are BEGGING me to give them a non-Patreon alternative. Forcing us to seek out Patreon’s competitors and do business with them.
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