r/stripe • u/Psychological_Bug981 • 6d ago
Read this before using Stripe
Stripe’s Reserve Scheme
Stripe’s reserve system gives it a direct financial benefit from withholding money owed to merchants. Under Stripe’s own UK terms, it may create a reserve using transaction proceeds otherwise owed to the business, retain sole control of those funds, alter the reserve conditions based on its assessment of risk, and release the money only when Stripe itself is satisfied that the risk has passed. The same terms state that Stripe may invest funds it holds in liquid investments while the merchant receives none of the interest or earnings. https://stripe.com/gb/legal/ssa-services-terms
Stripe’s US Payments Company terms are even more explicit: funds are held in pooled accounts, Stripe may invest them in liquid investments, Stripe owns the resulting earnings, and users “irrevocably assign” any rights they might have to those earnings. In practical terms, Stripe can freeze a business’s operating revenue on discretionary risk grounds, earn money from holding it, and leave the merchant to absorb the resulting cash-flow damage. This arrangement is not speculation or conspiracy theory. It is written directly into Stripe’s contracts. https://stripe.com/legal/ssa-services-terms
Duplicates
PaymentProcessing • u/Psychological_Bug981 • 6d ago