Most of the fraud happens with accounts outside the US. New payment processors always start with the US and slowly expand outward.

Being able to deal with fraud is how PayPal made itself when everyone that came before it failed.

That's true, but too broad a brush. There's a difference between your average European country and China/Russia.

Yours is the most compelling one I've seen.

As you can see if you want to provide this service to a foreigner then you need to do checks on this person and his bank. This costs such much that most will decide that it is not cost effective to do so.

Well, why do their representatives insist it's a "top priority" then?

FastSpring, which is a US company, can actually work with non-US companies just fine. Why is that?

Also, at some point I asked them why they could, and BrainTree couldn't, and they said they can't really think of a reason why.

So.. What exactly is the deal? I'm dying to know.

Many of the card acceptance solutions that do not require this information are not actually issuing merchant accounts or are otherwise performing what is known as aggregration or is opening a merchant account on your behalf that they own. Some are also issuing merchant accounts in non-US banks. Others are in violation of US law.

I am curious that a social security number is all that is required...why is it such a pain to get a merchant account with a bank or other acquirer? I am curious how Stripe can make it so simple.

The second reason is that it's "standard", and everybody copies the "standard" without much consideration. The companies providing merchant accounts are usually not technology companies, and historically haven't had thought much about product.

We like to think that we can do much better than traditional companies on both counts.

I am curious as I am in fact an Australian citizen and know that a lot of people have a hard time here when trying to open a merchant account. From what I've read and heard it's traditionally a similar in the US and it is obviously one of the killer features of Stripe.

Was it hard for you to work with a bank (Wells Fargo) on this? From what I've heard banks are the main driver behind the 'shotgun' approach to information collection, at least here in Australia. I could well be wrong on this, hence I ask the question.

You are already doing a much better job than traditional companies on both accounts, it's great to watch and I'm sure you guys will continue to do great work.

Note: I just realised my spelling error in my previous post...iPhone autocorrect got the better of me!a

A lot of these services are not available outside the US. Last time I checked Google Checkout was limited to the US as well.

It is really annoying as I live in Canada and I cannot use many of these services.