Stripe Payments Review: Is Stripe A Good Credit Card Processor?

Stripe Checkout is Stripe’s low-code customizable payment page. It’s a PCI-compliant integration featuring:

• Responsive mobile design
• CAPTCHAs
• Card validation
• Automatic tax collection
• Adjustable quantities
• International language support

Stripe Elements provides the same security features but is geared toward businesses that want to take on more of their own UI design elements for their payment pages. Web designers can think of it a bit like a payment-centric Flexbox.

Payment links provide an alternative way to check out your customers by sending them a link by text, email, or messaging service. While this feature doesn’t require code to implement, you can use an API provided by Stripe to generate payment links programmatically. Checkout pages can be customized to reflect your branding aesthetics.

Note that payment links are distinct from billing/invoicing, as it only sends a link to checkout.

You can use Stripe Invoicing to send invoices globally. Invoices can be created through the Stripe dashboard without having to do any coding, however, as this is Stripe we’re talking about, you can use the Invoicing API to automate various aspects of the invoicing process.

Invoice parameters can be customized to your needs. You’ll be able to set your own icons and logos in JPG or PNG format (512kb in size and greater or equal in size to 128px by 128px). Brand colors and accent colors can also be set.

Stripe Billing overlaps somewhat with Stripe Invoicing, which is also capable of handling recurring billing. However, where Stripe Invoicing is focused more on the actual invoice form and customization, Stripe Billing is more geared towards designing the logic and infrastructure of recurring payments, so it will generally find more use with businesses that have more complex subscription offerings.

For example, you can set the:

• Flat rates
• Multiple prices
• Per seat billing
• Usage-based billing
• Tiered pricing
• Promotions and trial periods

Like Stripe Invoicing, Stripe Billing doesn’t require any coding for its basic functionality, but you can get more out of it if you’re able to.

While there are ways to use Stripe without having to type a line of code, that’s probably not what attracted its staunchest supporters. Stripe’s APIs (application programming interfaces) provide an incredibly reliable and well-considered framework for developers to quickly and easily integrate the Stripe payment platform using a variety of supported languages/frameworks (Ruby, Python, PHP, Java, Node, Go, etc.).

Achieving the minimal amount of functionality is as easy as pasting in a few lines of code, but you’ll want to follow along with the walkthroughs to get a sense of everything you can do. It’s a solid foundation to build on and expand your business, and Stripe updates its features and documentation constantly. The API is testing-friendly, providing different security keys for tests and live code. Stripe even gives you some fake credit card numbers to play around with.

We touched on Stripe’s card readers earlier. If you want to use them, you’ll need to set up Stripe Terminal.

Stripe customers that want to be able to take the occasional in-person transaction will likely find Stripe Terminal to be a wonderful convenience with reasonable pricing. However, keep in mind that Stripe Terminal isn’t really a ready-made POS solution. It’s closer to a module you can run on compatible hardware to make in-person transactions on your eCommerce credit card processing service.

That said, Stripe has been investing a lot of development into Stripe Terminal, and it’s much improved over what it was just a few short years ago. Stripe Terminal is also one of the first partners to be compatible with Tap To Pay functions on iPhone and Android, which allows NFC-compatible payment methods to be processed using a compatible smartphone as the card reader.

Radar is Stripe’s solution to eCommerce fraud. Radar uses machine learning to identify and stop credit card fraud and takes into account an enormous stream of data to determine the likelihood of a fraudulent transaction, including the card’s previous transaction history on the Stripe network.

Radar also looks at your business’s payment processing and compares it against multiple data models to determine which one will work best for your business while reducing fraud and preventing false positives. Of course, this is all on top of the various other fraud prevention tools, such as AVS and CVV checks.

As a payments platform, Stripe offers tools aimed at helping customers manage their businesses. These services are aimed at businesses of different sizes, so you can opt in as necessary.

Offerings include:

• Data Warehousing: You can centralize your Stripe-related data and reports through Stripe’s partnerships with Snowflake or Amazon Redshift.
• Stripe Financial Connections: This service verifies bank account information for ACH transactions and can be used to verify balances and minimize fraud in bank-to-bank transfers.
• Stripe Sigma: Sigma is Stripe’s advanced, SQL-powered reporting system. Businesses seeking deeper insight into their payment trends. Pricing scales with volume, so businesses of any size can theoretically use it.
• Stripe Atlas: Stripe Atlas is a service designed to help entrepreneurs form companies and startups. It can be used to form legal entities, issue stock to founders, and, of course, process payments.
• Stripe Climate: Stripe Climate is a service aimed at helping businesses access carbon-removal technologies.
• Stripe Tax: Stripe Tax automates tax collection on your account. Keep in mind this applies not only to US taxes but also VATs and similar taxes in international markets.
• Stripe Revenue Recognition: Stripe Revenue Recognition is a service aimed at helping ease growing businesses’ accrual accounting needs.
• Stripe Identity: Another security tool for verifying user identity. It supports IDs from 33 countries.

Stripe leverages its payments infrastructure to provide some limited financial services for its customers. In general, these are available by invitation rather than application.

• Stripe Capital: Stripe Capital offers loans (in function, they’re closer to merchant cash advances) to qualified customers. These do not require a credit check and are paid back out of a percentage of your daily Stripe transactions.
• Corporate Card: Qualifying companies can get a Stripe corporate credit card. There are no annual fees, foreign transaction fees, or late fees. The cash back balance is automatically credited to your Stripe bills.
• Stripe Treasury: Stripe Treasury isn’t a financial service itself but rather a toolset that can be used to build financial products within an external platform. Stripe Treasury was created in partnership with a network of banks in an effort to take negotiation and compliance issues off the plates of Stripe’s customers.

• China UnionPay
• JCB
• Alipay
• WeChat Pay
• FPX
• GrabPay
• BECS Direct Debit

• Cartes Bancaires
• Bancontact
• EPS
• giropay
• iDEAL
• Multibanco
• P24
• SOFORT
• SEPA Direct Debit
• Bacs Direct Debit

• Interac
• OXXO
• Affirm
• Boleto
• ACH Debit
• Pre-authorized debits
• ACH Credit Transfer

Without question, the most common complaints in Stripe payments reviews are sudden account terminations and sweeping payment reversals without notice and with little explanation. Merchants also comment about sudden holds on their funds while their account is “under review.”

This kind of thing happens all the time with third-party payment providers. While they give you instant access to payment processing, they can (and absolutely will) review your account and processing habits soon after you begin to use the service. At this point, they can cancel your account for any reason, real or perceived, so it’s a good idea to know how to avoid account holds and terminations.

That said, Stripe is better than some PSPs in this regard, usually giving about five days’ advance notice before shutting your account down.

Stripe is designed with developers in mind, which is great for them. But it comes at the cost of a steeper learning curve for everyone else. Plenty of users complain about the ease of use (or, perhaps more accurately, the lack thereof).

If you want to use Stripe but don’t want to mess around with code, look into getting it pre-integrated into a more user-friendly platform, such as Shopify (compare Stripe VS Shopify). You can find additional code-lite options through Stripe Connect.

Some of Stripe’s customers have expressed concern about how well Stripe scales up, especially since some premium features can be costly. Additionally, businesses can easily outgrow flat-rate pricing when their volume picks up. If that happens, contact Stripe and see if you can work out an alternative arrangement.

The lack of fraud protection is not something to take lightly, so I really dug into it. I found that Stripe has an automatic algorithm that works to identify fraudulent transactions and flag them. There is not a lot of information out there about how it works. We do know the system can generate false positives. If you find a declined transaction that you know to be legitimate, you can override it and try the transaction again.

You can also mark transactions as fraudulent and refund them yourself (make sure you report them to Stripe.) Second, you can enable CVV and AVS (address) checks and automatically decline transactions that fail them (these are two separate things). That second part is important because a transaction can still go through even if the checks fail. However, at the same time, it is not uncommon for legitimate shoppers to get their zip codes wrong. These checks aren’t enabled by default, so you have to go in and adjust your settings yourself. That should be one of your first steps after signing up with Stripe, to be honest.

In the meantime, do your homework. Check that you have any relevant security measures enabled. And if you notice a change relating to Stripe’s fraud protections, let us know!

While it takes a bit of technical knowledge to wring the most out of Stripe, there’s a lot you can do with it. Few other PSPs offer quite as much potential. The ability to use and enable only the parts you want also can help the efficiency of your processes.

It’s not the cheapest option, but its pricing is fair for the number of things Stripe can do. The pricing model, while it can get complex, is very predictable, making it a good option for businesses that need to know exactly how much they’re going to be spending on credit card processing.

Stripe’s ability to deal with different currencies and service dozens of countries worldwide gives it an edge, particularly when it comes to eCommerce. Additionally, the ability to settle in different currencies is a huge advantage for businesses that operate in different countries.

Yes, Stripe is overall safe to use, but it has a third-party processor’s typical account stability issues. This also applies to Square and PayPal.

The Stripe Payments system is pretty secure, though how secure depends on whether you take advantage of its advanced features, such as Radar.

After your first payout, which takes about seven days, Stripe will payout every two business days for American businesses. It may take longer for businesses in high-risk industries or other markets.

You don’t necessarily need a website to use Stripe, but since it’s an eCommerce-focused payment platform, you’ll probably want one.

Stripe is a third-party processor, not a merchant account. It allows you to process payments without having a merchant account.

Stripe is a payment gateway. However, you can’t use the payment gateway functions independently of the Stripe platform.

With over 12 years in business as a credit card processor, Stripe can safely be said to not be a scam. Stripe is accredited with the Better Business Bureau where it currently has an A+ rating.