Patreon's Announced Fee Changes

Greetings Patrons,

Yesterday we got word from Patreon that, beginning on December 18th, they will change their fee structure. 

Here’s the short version: you’re going to be charged more than you have been in the past, and we’re concerned about this. The rest of this message has numbers in it, and describes some of our concerns in detail.

At the time you originally pledged, Patreon was taking between 7% and 15% in processing fees before handing funds to creators. The actual percentage varied depending on how many creators a single patron’s pledge total was being divided among. 

We knew about these fees when we opened our Patreon page, and have been quite happy to pay them. Credit card processing fees apply regardless of platform, and Patreon needs money to continue doing business. 

Under the new model, Patreon is taking 5% of the pledge total, and transferring the balance to creators, but the credit card processing fees will be charged to you in addition to your pledge. This means that you will be charged more than the amount you actually pledged by 2.9% plus 35 cents per pledge. 

Here are some examples:

· $1 pledges will get charged $1.38

· $2.50 pledges will get charged $2.92

· $5 pledges will get charged $5.49

Patreon has provided a more complete explanation here:  https://patreon.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005631963

We are quite concerned about how this will affect each of you. As it has been explained to us, if you’re pledging a dollar each to twenty different creators, you’ll be charged $27.60 ($1.38 times 20) instead of just $20. (NOTE: it’s possible we’re getting this wrong, but the verbiage on the page linked above explicitly says that the fees are applied “to each of your individual pledges.”)

We’ve been very pleased with Patreon’s platform and service so far, but we are not happy with this change. We prefer to absorb the processing fees ourselves. We do this in the Schlock Mercenary web store, and at conventions. We have registered our concerns with Patreon and have asked them to reconsider the change. 

Many of you, especially those of you who are pledging to multiple creators, will want to reconsider your pledges. We completely understand. We want you to be able to do that now, rather than after the new charges have gone through. 

We’ve had less than a day to think about this, but we can promise you this much: we will keep talking to Patreon, we will listen to you, and we’ll do everything we can to make it worthwhile for you to continue pledging with us.