In Australia it can be hard, or expensive to work out payments, but thanks to independent developer David Stallard, his new app Charge for Stripe will fix that.
David started developing the app after his wife began selling jewellery from home. A payments system soon became a necessity but he didn’t want to have to purchase additional hardware. He also found the idea of paying a percentage of each transaction to a payments provider distasteful, so he began working on Charge for Stripe which charges a small flat fee per transaction (more on this later).
The app uses Stripes API which is certified to PCI Service Provider Level 1, to handle all the transactions, with PIN or fingerprint authentication required to process payments for additional security. The app doesn’t store any sensitive card info on your device, and the app converts card data to a single-use token for transactions. David worked with the Stripe payments team to ensure that the safety and security of bank account information was ensured from end to end. David says that for NFC payments, the card number is hashed so that only the last 4 digits of the card number are displayed on-screen.
The app provides a lot of additional data that other apps and services don’t provide including payment, customer and payout history. It also handles multiple accounts if you have that requirement to separate parts of your business.
Charge for Stripe use the Stripe API and there are charges. In Australia, Stripe charges 1.75% of the transaction + 30¢ for each transaction for domestic credit cards, or 2.9% + 30¢ for International cards. David charges a small 20c fee on top of this, so for a $100 sale, the payments break down looks like this:
Sale amount: $100
Stripe fees: $1.75 + $0.30 = $2.05
Charge for Stripe fees: $0.20
Total fees: $2.25
You receive: $97.75
Overall, that’s not bad.
The app itself is very nicely presented and those touches such a nicely material design and the inclusion of Quick Actions to access New Payments faster is also a nice touch. The app also has push notifications with a satisfying ‘Cha-Ching!’ every time you receive a payment, with additional settings to allow for vibration settings etc. is great.
Charge for Stripe is currently available in Beta from the Google Play Store. It looks great, it’s from an Australian developer and charges minimal fees which we love. Check it out for yourself and see what you think.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.platinumapps.chargeforstripe&rdid=com.platinumapps.chargeforstripe
