Patreon Changing Its Processing Fees (Patreon)

The exact details are here, but basically, payment systems have processing fees, which we, the creators on Patreon, were paying. It's generally a small percentage of a charge + a set amount.

This made knowing exactly how much we were actually getting each month a bit difficult to predict, but it was not without good reason, and I thought it was fine.

Now they want to add a service fee of 2.9% + $0.35 to be paid by patrons for each individual pledge starting on December 18th instead of having the creators pay it, making what we get a predictable 95% of total pledges.

This will effectively make a $1 pledge cost $1.38, a $3 pledge $3.44, and a $5 pledge cost $5.50 (rounding up to the nearest penny, because I'm betting they will).

This is supposed to make things better for creators, but I've yet to see anyone actually happy about it. I've already complained to Patreon's official Twitter, and will have other words to share with them.

I'm not sure what changes I'll make if they do go through with it (I'm sort of hoping they won't), but I'll keep you all posted. Patreon itself should be sending out a message about this to patrons tomorrow, but I wanted you all to hear it from me first (if not another creator).

EDIT: Short term, if they do go with this, I'll be changing the minimum pledges for each reward tier to as close as the exact amount needed for people paying a minimum to not wind up paying more so long as they switch to the new minimum.

Long term, there are potential options other than Patreon, though I'm not eager to jump ship. I know of and communicate with other cartoonists on Patreon, and I get the feeling this is something that will be figured out as a community if Patreon doesn't sort this out.