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How do you feel about the upcoming processing fee changes? (Patreon)

Published:
2017-12-08 22:59:58
Imported:
2026-06

Content

I'm still posting over in the community and chiming in that Patreon is making the wrong steps regarding fees. Please ask questions if you have any concerns with the poll options.

 The fee is 2.9% + $0.35 per pledge. I've been trying to find out if it's possible for it to be per sum of transactions, so 20 $1 pledges is charged the same fee as 1 $20 pledge. 

 FOR THIS POLL:
Vote for one out of options A, B, and C, and one out of 1, 2, 3, and 4.

Note: There are two parts to the fee: the percent (2.9%) and the flat portion ($0.35). As is, it is per pledge.

Choice 2 mean you're able to maintain your pledges with just the 2.9% fee, if the $0.35 is one time. The fee would still exist, but it would be calculated from your overall payment, rather than for each individual pledge.

Choice 3 means you cannot continue your current level of support for a few creators even if the fee was just the 2.9%.

Choice 4 means you will be vacating patreon entirely if this change goes through.

One thing I've learned, part of the reason for the changes is Patreon wants to switch from a per-month model to a recurring model. They want a patron to get 1 month of access the moment they pay, to avoid the cases where someone pledges on like the 29th and then gets charged again the 1st.

This in theory would mean more payment services would incur more fees. I personally don't think it's smart to transition to such a system until figuring out how to mitigate said fees. And IMO it still doesn't explain the need to charge the flat part of the fee for each pledge.

I'm polling this discussion just to get a bit more concrete feedback that I can share with staff. Just answer honestly, and if you have questions don't hesitate to ask.

Reminder: the change goes into effect the 18th, though you guys won't see it til the next billing cycle (January). So, you don't have to vacate yet (and ultimately if you do need to I 100% understand) but keep an eye and ear out for changes. I'm gonna try and keep you guys up to date.

Just a reminder, under the new system, pledges have a different cost than what's displayed.

  • The $1 tier will be charged at $1.38
  •  The $2 tier will be charged at $2.41
  •  The $5 tier will be charged at $5.50
  •  The $10 tier will be charged at $10.64
  •  The $20 tier will be charged at $20.93

For new patrons these costs will be visible at the start, but for existing ones it boils down to a modification of what you pay monthly.

Comments

Anonymous

Thanks for asking

Squirrel Sword

It's certainly made me re-think which patrons I feel are really worth it.

Simone Spinozzi

I just went to a bunch of creators that get "paid per creation" and while mantaining my pledge level i simply made a maximum of 1 pledge/month and sent them what i had set as a maximum. Example: For sabrina online (that gets paid per page) i went from $1 upt to 5/month as a maximum per month to straight $5, and just 1/month, but still keeping the $1 reward (if possible. Patreon is dumb). Then i removed a lot of my 1$ to 3$ pledges (several webcomics that i don't really care for but was paying out of "duty"). And then i went to see which of the artists i had that already made a lot of money but i was not "emotionally attached to" (that is: we don't talk aside from a monthly "thank you" exchange or something) and i removed those too. And finally i raised the pledges to a few of the artists that remained. This made me go from about 800 $/month before taxes and fees everything to about 600 $/month (before taxes etc.) and from 140 creators to 69... sooo yeah. Let's just say that this patreon move made me realise how much i was spending here with a chart and everything. And this became a good excuse to reflect on how i was spending all this money and if i really liked those artists. Basically to do some heavy cleanup of stuff that i was dragging along but was not really attached to. But i kept the ones i really cared about. It's not pretty, and i don't like what Patreon did, but possibly now i can commission the artists i like instead of just paying Patreon. Sooo... i dunno.

Zedrin

Just a bit of an update: Patreon as a whole is starting to acknowledge the changes they're planning and how unpopular they are. They have acknowledged that they know small pledges get screwed over. I'm still posting in the forums about it. I may try contacting staff via email as well. Again part of the reason they want to do these changes is because if they switch to a responsive anniversary model, it would mean a lot more fees for creators (e.g. only receiving 60% of what is pledged). However, I feel that their approach to this is heavy handed and isn't assessing all of their options. I do genuinely believe that Patreon isn't doing this to attempt to make more money--rather it's them being hasty and wanting to transition to a more responsive system that will cost THEM more (as well as cost more for users on the platform). If fees are going to be necessary either way, I'm gonna keep pitching the idea of relying on a wallet balance so you can sum up all fees at once to mitigate both Patreon's costs and the users' costs, unless they tell me my assumptions are wrong.