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Re:How John and Patrick Collison Built Stripe by leesalminen on Tuesday January 05, 2016 @01:17PM (#10844897)
We approached Stripe with several million/mo in processing across hundreds of merchants. The rate they offered us was almost as laughable as 2.9%+30c.
Re:How John and Patrick Collison Built Stripe by jhall1468 on Wednesday January 06, 2016 @10:12AM (#10850864)
I'm not sure what you expected? This is akin to going to a retailer and expecting distributor pricing. You went to a PSP when you should have been talking to a bank, the only laughable part is that, somehow, a company with this kind of volume didn't even know what they were trying to buy.
Re:How John and Patrick Collison Built Stripe by kennethologist on Tuesday January 05, 2016 @03:41PM (#10845859)
Who did you use instead?
Re:How John and Patrick Collison Built Stripe by leesalminen on Tuesday January 05, 2016 @05:57PM (#10846767)
We worked out a very good deal with CardConnect (ISO of First Data) after looking into becoming our own ISO.

Their docs aren't as good as Stripe, but there is greater functionality available. Overall, I'm satisfied.

Re:How John and Patrick Collison Built Stripe by jblake on Tuesday January 05, 2016 @11:26PM (#10848536)
With that kind of volume, you should go straight to a big bank - like Chase Paymentech or First Data - and getting interchange plus rates. Then you can plug your merchant account into whatever gateway you want that has the best API docs, such as Authorize.net or Braintree (I don't think Stripe supports bringing your own merchant account). Curious why you went with an ISO? Risk-related - TPPA maybe? True that ISO's are usually willing to take on more risk than the big guys.
Re:How John and Patrick Collison Built Stripe by CardFellow on Thursday January 07, 2016 @11:05AM (#10858668)
Couple things - Chase Paymentech and First Data are processors, not banks. I'd be careful going to banks for processing, because it tends to be among the most expensive and opaque you can get. (Bank of America and Wells Fargo both have merchant processing divisions, and are among the worst solutions most businesses can choose.)

Interchange plus is definitely the pricing model that most businesses want to be on (and it's actually not limited to high volume businesses - plenty of small merchants can get it, too) but be aware that by itself, interchange plus isn't a silver bullet. It really needs to be a true pass-through model, where you pay the true costs of interchange and assessments. Otherwise, you could still get overcharged. Mercury Payments, for example, charges with "interchange plus" but has now been sued twice for overcharging on assessments. Basically they padded the costs of assessments while trying to make it look like those were the costs charged by the card brands.

Re:How John and Patrick Collison Built Stripe by CardFellow on Thursday January 07, 2016 @11:08AM (#10858697)
Curious, if you're willing to share, what was the good deal?