Poll Results: Switched to subscription billing
Added 2022-09-26 17:59:24 +0000 UTCUpdate (September, 30th)
The poll has ended, and the option to make the switch won with a 20% lead. I've already switched to the new payment method, so new patrons will now receive their successive charges 30 days after their initial subscription, rather than statically at the start of each month. Patrons who, for some reason, still wish to be charged at the start of the month, should now subscribe at the start of the month.
Original Post
Hello, everyone! Patron offered me today the option to switch the date in which subscription payments are billed to patrons. As it had been working until now, Patreon charged all patrons for all their subscriptions at the start of each month, rather than every ~30 days. This wouldn't be a large issue for someone who subscribed for a whole year, but for patrons who want a tighter control of their spending, this system would incentivize them to wait until the ~2nd day of each month to subscribe, in other to avoid getting charged twice in a period shorter than a month. Under the new system, the billing day would remain the same as the last time, meaning that if you subscribed the 10th of May, you will next be charged the 10th of June, and so on.
I honestly do not see many reasons not to make the change. I think the new option is far more logical, doesn't invite as much to confusion, and doesn't push patrons to delay their subscriptions artificially. The only reasons against that I can think of would be that some people would rather receive most of their billings at the start of the month, and that creators making the change will make a little bit less of money on the very, very short term, but personally I don't think any of them hold too much weight.
Still, I'm leaving the choice open to be voted. The poll will finish on the 30th of this month, to make sure it's possible to switch to the new system right before October if you agree with it. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments if there's a perspective that you consider important that I didn't cover.
Comments
That's something only patreon would be able to clarify, I seem to recall last time the transaction fee for patrons was slightly higher than Paypal's fees, implying there is a few cents that get tucked away for patreon. That fee was static and paid once per month, at the turn of the month regardless of how many creators one was supporting. If this fee still exists this would then likely have to be paid for every campaign that offers this new subscription model. However, I can't seem to find anything in the help section about that, and I haven't used paypal on here in quite some time, so maybe that changed. Right now for my payments in my native currency the amount patreons lists as getting billed is the amount I actually pay, and for the stuff I pay in a different currency the discrepancy is the exchange rate of my bank. So that might not actually be a problem.
NeitherMeNorYou
2022-09-26 18:24:45 +0000 UTC> "Does this change how you get money, too? Or do you still get to decide when you'd like to pay out?" I manually payout once a month, to reduce the fee of payment processors at a minimum. No reason to think I would no longer have the choice to do that under the new system. > "One problem I see here is that it possibly opens up another source of revenue for patreon when people have to make multiple payments via paypal per month, and every transaction has its own little transaction fee that patreon grabs for itself." That could indeed be an issue. Any ideas on how or where could we confirm or refute this?
Deep Interactivity
2022-09-26 18:10:28 +0000 UTCOne problem I see here is that it possibly opens up another source of revenue for patreon when people have to make multiple payments via paypal per month, and every transaction has its own little transaction fee that patreon grabs for itself. Does this change how you get money, too? Or do you still get to decide when you'd like to pay out? Because from my creator friend I do know they also take another transaction fee for themselves every time they request money to be paid out.
NeitherMeNorYou
2022-09-26 18:03:41 +0000 UTC
