Bad policies revoked. For now. (Patreon)

For the moment.

For what it's worth, I think the 2.9% fee (which is about average for credit card discounts- remember, if you're shopping anyplace smaller than Walmart or Amazon, about 3% of the total is going straight to the international corporations that own the credit interchange system) would be tolerable. What wasn't tolerable was the $0.35 fee PER PLEDGE. Unbundling the pledges as they proposed to do made small donations untenable- to the point that a $1 pledge would undergo a 40% markup. 

Thing is, Patreon isn't keeping more than maybe the tiniest sliver of that. That $0.35 is meant to cover what's called "swipe fees", the little ways credit card merchant accounts nickel and dime their customers on top of the monthly and annual fees they charge just for having an account. Patreon's share is the 5% they take off before handing the rest to creators. 

But someone, somewhere along the line, demanded more swipe fees- or at least that's the only explanation I can think of for unbundling the monthly pledge transactions. And that somebody is probably one or more of the venture capitalists who now control Patreon, which means something like this is going to happen again.

Keep your eyes open.

And please, keep up the support.