People won’t convert to paying customers as easily if you ask them to enter ACH info. This is completely irrational but very true. Higher conversion rate is likely worth more millions of dollars than using ACH would save.
True if you’re talking new customers but eventually that card expires and you’ll have someone who is “hooked.” That card money loses you about a dollar each month. Offer some small discount and I bet you’d get enough conversion to pay for the feature plus much more besides and as you build up you scale. Someone really ought to offer a card feature that doesn’t use the visa/Mastercard network for these kinds of micro transactions. That’s a lot of friction on the money.
You’re probably right that not a lot of folks, especially young people (under the age of 40) are going to even know how to find their routing number and checking account number. For sure a customer behavior problem.
I'm a little confused. Are you talking about literal paper checks? Or a direct transfer using the routing number and checking account number? The latter is what I experienced when I lived in Germany throughout the '90s. The Germans thought Americans were barbarians for not having their system, and I had to agree.
I can't imagine paper checks would be workable. It takes labor to process them - which can't be fully automated, or am I wrong? And you're going to have lots of people paying late, which would be a mess when we're talking about small-dollar amounts each month.
This might take a little time for Americans to get used to, but it's worth doing - not just on Substack but in many sectors. I pay with check drafts whenever I can; it saves stamps, if nothing else.
The check option would be great for those of us paying the annual rate for subscription too! As the author of a paid substack (and I get paid through stripe not square), another complicating factor is that substack have now started charging people in their local currency. So a $5 sub is now whatever their exchange rate suggests it should be in pesos or whatever. It's very confusing.
I got my numbers wrong by about $0.14 and substack already used Stripe and not Square so now I’m wondering why they don’t do this.
Foreign transactions are more complicated and to be honest I don’t do a lot in that area. I know fees just get higher anytime you move the money. If you were able to just sit on it and only pull it out when you felt you had enough that’s likely to be a savings, however, but there’s also volatility there and substack probably doesn’t want to help people do low stakes currency speculation.
People won’t convert to paying customers as easily if you ask them to enter ACH info. This is completely irrational but very true. Higher conversion rate is likely worth more millions of dollars than using ACH would save.
True if you’re talking new customers but eventually that card expires and you’ll have someone who is “hooked.” That card money loses you about a dollar each month. Offer some small discount and I bet you’d get enough conversion to pay for the feature plus much more besides and as you build up you scale. Someone really ought to offer a card feature that doesn’t use the visa/Mastercard network for these kinds of micro transactions. That’s a lot of friction on the money.
Maybe you’re right!
You’re probably right that not a lot of folks, especially young people (under the age of 40) are going to even know how to find their routing number and checking account number. For sure a customer behavior problem.
I'm a little confused. Are you talking about literal paper checks? Or a direct transfer using the routing number and checking account number? The latter is what I experienced when I lived in Germany throughout the '90s. The Germans thought Americans were barbarians for not having their system, and I had to agree.
I can't imagine paper checks would be workable. It takes labor to process them - which can't be fully automated, or am I wrong? And you're going to have lots of people paying late, which would be a mess when we're talking about small-dollar amounts each month.
Wishing you a better night's sleep tonight!
Check drafts not paper checks. Anything you do online processes as an ACH-TEL transaction through the FED.
Gotcha. In other words, like the Germans do it!
This might take a little time for Americans to get used to, but it's worth doing - not just on Substack but in many sectors. I pay with check drafts whenever I can; it saves stamps, if nothing else.
The check option would be great for those of us paying the annual rate for subscription too! As the author of a paid substack (and I get paid through stripe not square), another complicating factor is that substack have now started charging people in their local currency. So a $5 sub is now whatever their exchange rate suggests it should be in pesos or whatever. It's very confusing.
I got my numbers wrong by about $0.14 and substack already used Stripe and not Square so now I’m wondering why they don’t do this.
Foreign transactions are more complicated and to be honest I don’t do a lot in that area. I know fees just get higher anytime you move the money. If you were able to just sit on it and only pull it out when you felt you had enough that’s likely to be a savings, however, but there’s also volatility there and substack probably doesn’t want to help people do low stakes currency speculation.
That's a lotta MONEY LAUNDERING.
What’s nice is that after sleeping I’ve just realized I did my math wrong and 2.9% is $0.15 and all my numbers are wrong.
This was dizzying to read over a morning coffee but somehow it all makes cents 😁