Patreon creators see income dip due to payment processing issues

[Shawn Knight]

Why it matters: Patreon's latest issues serve as a cautionary tale to creators about the perils of having all of your eggs in one basket. It also highlights the importance of having an emergency fund.

Patreon in December came under fire regarding plans to change its service fee structure. The pushback created such a stir that Patreon decided to scrap it entirely and offered an apology for overstepping its boundaries.

The latest issue to hit the subscription-based platform, however, appears far more damaging and is at least partially out of the company’s control.

As The Verge highlights, some creators have discovered that a portion of their July payments have been declined. Those who support creators on the platform are reporting the same issue, noting that their payments have been declined and marked as fraud by their banks.

Hi everyone, as you know we're noticing an unexpectedly high number of payment declines. We're sorry for the frustration this has caused and we're doing all we can to help creators get paid by working with our payment partners and continuing to retry payments. More info below. pic.twitter.com/KI0sXGcQHc

— Patreon (@Patreon) August 2, 2018

Patreon addressed the matter Thursday on Twitter. The company said some of the issues were caused by external forces and others by their efforts to create a stable and global platform as they grow and invest in their capabilities. Patreon apologized for the frustration the matter has caused and said it is working with payment partners and continuing to retry payments.

Patreon has since e-mailed all patrons who had declined payments with information about the situation and steps they can take to make sure their payment is processed.

For creators that rely on the platform’s income to make their monthly bills or fund various projects, cuts can be quite scary. Cosplayer and streamer Ryuu Lavitz told The Verge that her payout was less than 50 percent of what was projected just a few days ago, adding that she’s also unable to withdraw what little money actually came through due to “suspicious activity.” As a result, she’ll be late on paying rent this month for the first time ever.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/75803-patreon-creators-see-income-dip-due-payment-processing.html

 

[stewi0001]

When I read the headline, I thought that the literal creators of Patron were the ones losing money. lol!

 

[Reachable]

Anybody who relies on a paycheck has all their eggs in one basket. Your employer has almost life and death power over you. Those who derive their income from Patreon are crowdsourced by a multitude of people. Their eggs are in many baskets.

Patreon and its payment partners are acting as banks, financial institutions, fiduciaries; they must not ever screw up. If they do, the resulting mess is entirely their fault and not poor planning on the part of those who are getting paid through them.

 

[bas416]

Futile effort it is, Patreon.

 

[kapital98]

Anybody who relies on a paycheck has all their eggs in one basket. Your employer has almost life and death power over you. Those who derive their income from Patreon are crowdsourced by a multitude of people. Their eggs are in many baskets.

Patreon and its payment partners are acting as banks, financial institutions, fiduciaries; they must not ever screw up. If they do, the resulting mess is entirely their fault and not poor planning on the part of those who are getting paid through them.

Patreon has no accountability. If you get a paycheck from a job they have a federal mandate to pay you in a reasonable time (as an employer: the redtape is not fun but is necessary).

Most people I know who use Patreon use it as a way to collect money from relatively marginal income producing areas. A perfect example is youtube. The content providers make very little from monetization. Some of my favorite providers cannot monetize their most popular videos because they've intentionally demonetized the video to prevent the copyright bots from taking down their video. They are educators and patreon is a great way to supplement or even be the primary source of money.

A huge problem with all of this is people are lazy. They don't want to go to weird places to give money. Patreon is a respected name and used by most. Most people will lose money if they don't use patreon (even with them skimming a huge portion off the top).