Recently started using Stripe as a client wanted use a credit card to pay an invoice. It seemed like a good idea, however, now I am having to wait 7 days to receive the money which Stripe appear to already have recieved from my client? WTF! So it seems Stripe's business model is not just to charge my clients a fee on top of my invoices but to also make some sort of spread by holding onto fund unnecessarily. I have stopped adding this function to my invoices and am looking for an alternative offering which does not hold onto client funds. Any recommendations gratefully recieved.

Everything is fine with Stripe - until it isn't. Once they decide they're not happy with your business, they freeze funds first and ask questions later. I could understand this if it relates to a fraudulent transaction, or chargebacks, but during our two months with Stripe we didn't have a single incident of this. Nonetheless, Stripe saw fit to freeze £7000 of customer card payments while they conducted an endless looping review. Attempts to contact Stripe went round and round in circles as no agent ever had context, or read up on the email history of the conversation. I had to explain our position as though it was new information in every second email. By the end, I'm fairly sure I was speaking to a chatbot equipped with templates only. We were consistently asked for login details for our online portal, which we provided on every occasion. Each time we did this, Stripe forgot or didn't record the details and/or lost their 2FA access so they'd continually ask us to give them new login credentials. They asked us constantly for our social media or website presence. We require neither, so we avoid both (beyond a basic login portal). Despite this being explained dozens of times, they'd come back to us a day later and request the same thing. In the end, we had to make an official complaint and threaten to go the FCA just to get access to our funds, after which our account was closed. Without a doubt, the worst payments company that I've done business with in my career. Do yourself a favour and go with Square, GoCardless or Crezco.

Got a coustomer to pay me on pay now button but never received the payment.

I have used stripe for 6 months now having had 30+ payment being made on it, and I hate it. Firstly, it's not quick. The customer might be able to pay quickly using their CC but that money takes AGES to reach my account. Eventually when money does reach my account it says 'payout' like it's a poker machine or something when the money is mine. Stripe is meant to be an exchange medium. A 'payout' can include more than one payment which you are owed at a time, meaning that Stripe 'holds' payments and sends them to you as a group. Because of this my accounting system can't match each payment with my Bank account either. So in summary, Stripe charges for it's service, you get your money slower, and it holds onto your money (to gain interest on no doubt). Do NOT use this payment system for your business!

Credit card payments incur fees. For a business like mine processing high value transactions that can be a chunk of profit gone. But at the same time, most of my clients prefer making card payments because in the UK that gives them an extra layer of security if something goes wrong. I am constantly checking out different services, and even though at time of writing this, Stripe have increased their card fees, they are still the best out there for the average transcation value I'm processing. The service is super easy to connect to Xero and I receive payment in three working days which I'm fine with for my setup. Obviously I still prefer a nice bank transfer ;-) but I've factored the increment into my cost calculations for each project carried out so fees are absorbed along with VAT and all the other expenses you have to consider when pricing a product or service. You definitely need to keep a regular eye on all these services, but if your business invoices are high value transactions, but lower volume - Stripe offers the most flexibility and best rates without all the setup charges and monthly rentals that seem to accompany a lot of other services.

Had to cancel the service, xero immediately marks invoices as paid, but the money was never received in the business account.