Are you producing podcasts individually for each person, and some subset of those people who receive a custom podcast tip you?
Are you charging money for your podcast to all listeners, and some subset of those people who pay for your podcast tip you?
If either of those is true, then your podcast production is a goods or service, and you should present that evidence to Stripe as they may have overlooked it. If you're just broadcasting the podcast and asking for donations, that's not going to qualify as "a monetary transaction in exchange for goods or services delivered to the buyer", since your goods/services are delivered regardless of whether transactions exist.
From a selfish bank standpoint, ask "How would a chargeback be evaluated for validity?". How will the bank's processes handle someone charging back their tip jar donation because you unknowingly say something upsetting on the next episode about their favorite hobby? Whether or not they grant the chargeback, you will end up terminating services with that bank.
I suspect this is why Patreon is constantly rotating card processors every few months: the banking chargeback system often refuses to cope with "payment without promise", unless it's a 501(c)(3) non-profit in which case the bank is paid in the form of tax breaks to deal with all this.
This also suggests that "Who is your payment processor?" is probably a trade secret for all existing tipjar/donation platforms.
Paying you for podcasts is legitimate when it's connected. You'd be fine if you did something like "support me by getting a lossless FLAC download here" and use Stripe or by providing your Venmo for peer-to-peer money transfer. But Stripe won't work well if you want to take contributions disconnected from service. i.e. there has to be a transaction for them to accept you.
The reason for this is apparent if you flip roles. It's an anti-chargeback mechanism.
It's probably because the actual payment/donation is not directly connected to the podcast production, but rather you perform the work elsewhere, and then ask people to go tip you. Other than in your head(s), there's no actual connections between the work and the payment.
You can't reasonably expect Stripe to just take your word for it, at the scale that they operate.
Do people get access to these things without sending you money?
edit: You can request to get paid EXTRA for a good or service you provide (a tip). You cannot request to get paid (in any way) while not providing a specific good or service in return.
altairprime|1 year ago
Are you charging money for your podcast to all listeners, and some subset of those people who pay for your podcast tip you?
If either of those is true, then your podcast production is a goods or service, and you should present that evidence to Stripe as they may have overlooked it. If you're just broadcasting the podcast and asking for donations, that's not going to qualify as "a monetary transaction in exchange for goods or services delivered to the buyer", since your goods/services are delivered regardless of whether transactions exist.
From a selfish bank standpoint, ask "How would a chargeback be evaluated for validity?". How will the bank's processes handle someone charging back their tip jar donation because you unknowingly say something upsetting on the next episode about their favorite hobby? Whether or not they grant the chargeback, you will end up terminating services with that bank.
I suspect this is why Patreon is constantly rotating card processors every few months: the banking chargeback system often refuses to cope with "payment without promise", unless it's a 501(c)(3) non-profit in which case the bank is paid in the form of tax breaks to deal with all this.
This also suggests that "Who is your payment processor?" is probably a trade secret for all existing tipjar/donation platforms.
(I am not your lawyer, this is not legal advice.)
unknown|1 year ago
[deleted]
renewiltord|1 year ago
The reason for this is apparent if you flip roles. It's an anti-chargeback mechanism.
sbarre|1 year ago
You can't reasonably expect Stripe to just take your word for it, at the scale that they operate.
marcinzm|1 year ago
edit: You can request to get paid EXTRA for a good or service you provide (a tip). You cannot request to get paid (in any way) while not providing a specific good or service in return.