In Australia it can be hard, or expensive to work out payments, but thanks to independent developer David Stallard, his new app Charge for Stripe will fix that.
David started developing the app after his wife began selling jewellery from home. A payments system soon became a necessity but he didn’t want to have to purchase additional hardware. He also found the idea of paying a percentage of each transaction to a payments provider distasteful, so he began working on Charge for Stripe which charges a small flat fee per transaction (more on this later).
The app uses Stripes API which is certified to PCI Service Provider Level 1, to handle all the transactions, with PIN or fingerprint authentication required to process payments for additional security. The app doesn’t store any sensitive card info on your device, and the app converts card data to a single-use token for transactions. David worked with the Stripe payments team to ensure that the safety and security of bank account information was ensured from end to end. David says that for NFC payments, the card number is hashed so that only the last 4 digits of the card number are displayed on-screen.
The app provides a lot of additional data that other apps and services don’t provide including payment, customer and payout history. It also handles multiple accounts if you have that requirement to separate parts of your business.
Charge for Stripe use the Stripe API and there are charges. In Australia, Stripe charges 1.75% of the transaction + 30¢ for each transaction for domestic credit cards, or 2.9% + 30¢ for International cards. David charges a small 20c fee on top of this, so for a $100 sale, the payments break down looks like this:
Sale amount: $100
Stripe fees: $1.75 + $0.30 = $2.05
Charge for Stripe fees: $0.20
Total fees: $2.25
You receive: $97.75
Overall, that’s not bad.
The app itself is very nicely presented and those touches such a nicely material design and the inclusion of Quick Actions to access New Payments faster is also a nice touch. The app also has push notifications with a satisfying ‘Cha-Ching!’ every time you receive a payment, with additional settings to allow for vibration settings etc. is great.
Charge for Stripe is currently available in Beta from the Google Play Store. It looks great, it’s from an Australian developer and charges minimal fees which we love. Check it out for yourself and see what you think.
Not sure I fully understand the gap this fills, unless I’m missing something.
You can take payments via both Square and Paypal Here without the additional reader hardware in most cases and key in card details, plus the payment provider rates are similar. This just seems like a $0.30 donation to David each time I take a payment. And I can personally vouch for the quality of Square’s reporting and such being top notch. Those apps also integrate to a point with eCommerce websites.
You also miss out on features like paywave, etc for in person payments that you get with the additional hardware, which when used in person, provide a MILES better customer experience. Not to mention that a customer watching you type in their details on your personal phone is not a great way to have them convinced their card is secure, whether it is or not.
Agreed. If the customer is giving the vendor his number, expiry and CVC, there is no way in the world that is secure. Even if the vendor passes his phone to the customer, the phone could have keylogging or screen recording software installed. I would refuse to use this payment method if I was a customer. When NPP/PayID is fully rolled out, that will be a much better solution. No fees and payments in under a minute, which typing in all the details using this system would take anyway. This is not a good solution.
Thanks for the feedback. As mentioned in a comment above, customer perception is obviously something over which we have no control, and if people would prefer not to hand over their credit card to have a transaction processed via a mobile app, that’s obviously their right. As also mentioned above, that’s never happened to my wife while she’s been using the app to process payments. As for security, keylogging or screen recording is definitely a risk, however we hash the card number when the payment is processed via NFC (tapping the card on the back of the device) so neither… Read more »
Actually that’s one of the big benefits of this app – you can accept payments via NFC without the need for a card reader. Simpy tap the card to the back of your phone (providing your phone has NFC, which many/most do) and the card number and expiry date are added to the app (the card number is hashed for security purposes). Customer perception is definitely an area where people may be concerned about handing over their card to have payments made via a mobile phone, but much like the introduction of services like Paywave, the more people use it,… Read more »
Thanks for the feedback. Square and Paypal Here focus primarily on having add-on devices to assist with the process of taking payments, which makes for a more clunky experience compared to simply tapping the card to the back of your device. While I appreciate it is possible to use those services without the device, that’s certainly not their goal and I imagine a very small % of transactions for Square and Paypal Here would be processed manually without the use of their external devices. As for integration with eCommerce website, Stripe does that as well (and is in fact integrated… Read more »
Is there a link to the website or the listing in the Play Store? Very interested in the app but I can’t find anything about it anywhere.
Hi Grant,
There’s a widget at the bottom of the article with the link.
To make it easier, here’s the link again https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.platinumapps.chargeforstripe
Thanks Daniel, though the widget at the bottom of the article was broken (couldn’t find the app).
Cheers,
Grant
Hope you found it all ok. If you have any feedback or suggestions, please let me know via https://chargeforstripe.com/contact as we’re still actively working on improving the app and welcome all feedback.
Hope you find it useful!