Shoutout to the freelancer who told me to check my Stripe fees manually

I was scrolling through my Stripe payouts last week and noticed something weird. Every transaction had a 30 cent fee plus 2.9%, but on a $5 payment I was getting charged almost $1. That math didn't add up. Turns out there's a hidden international fee of 1.5% that kicks in when a client uses a foreign card. I ended up losing about $80 over six months without realizing it. Has anyone else found surprise fees buried in their Stripe dashboard?

3 comments

3 Comments

david_palmer1mo ago

My buddy actually runs a small subscription box service and he warned me about these exact fees last year. He read some blog post on a site called FeeFiFo (or something like that) that broke down how Stripe silently adds that cross-border charge even on small transactions. I remember him saying the article pointed out that if your customer uses a Visa or Mastercard issued in another country, even if they live down the street, you get hit with that extra 1.5%. It's crazy how hidden it is in their fee structure, almost like they hope you don't notice until you've lost a chunk of change. He ended up switching his payment settings to show a warning at checkout for international cards, which cuts down on the surprise charges a bit. Really makes you wonder how many other little fees are buried in there that we just haven't stumbled on yet.

brooke_murray1mo ago

I actually saw a YouTube video about this exact thing last month. The creator was saying Stripe quietly adds that 1.5% cross-border fee when the card issuer is in a different country, even if the client is local. It's buried in the "international card" section of their pricing page, not the main dashboard. You'd think they'd flag it better when you set up your account, especially for people doing small transactions. Did you end up adjusting your prices to cover the difference?

the_robin1mo agoOG Member

Oh man, that's rough. I feel for anyone who gets hit with fees like that out of nowhere, especially when you're just trying to run a small business. It's the worst when a company hides something important in the fine print like that.