[Qgis-psc] More on PayPal and alternatives

[Tim Sutton]

Hi Andreas

I have actually been wondering if we could start a Patreon account (
https://www.patreon.com) and do a mode switch to encouraging people to
support QGIS in a sustained way (Patreon does a monthly payment model)
rather than once off donations. Of course I am suggesting this as a new
avenue for funding, not that we should not stop the donations). If we use
the Patreon model and it works we could be one step closer to hiring (or
part time hiring) some developers to work for the main QGIS project instead
of for clients.

In terms of direct alternatives for PayPal I don't have much experience
with other payment systems, sorry.

Regards

Tim

On Tue, Aug 22, 2017 at 9:16 AM, Nathan Woodrow <madmanwoo at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hey,
>
> My only comment would be does a change in service reduce the number of
> donations more then that we loose from paypal? Donations normally need to
> be pretty frictionless for people to do it.
>
> Nathan
>
> On Tue, 22 Aug 2017, 5:13 PM Andreas Neumann <andreas at qgis.org> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Now that I have access to our PayPal account I can see how much PayPal
>> takes for its services.
>>
>> On all incoming money, they get on average 5 %. If I withdraw money from
>> PayPal, they don't charge fees, but they unnecessarily convert everything
>> to CHF (during which they earn money again), which I then have to convert
>> again to Euros (and Postfinance, our bank again earns during this
>> conversion). All in all we loose an estimated 8 % of donation and
>> sponsorship money if someone pays through PayPal. Wire transfers in SEPA
>> countries (Europe) are free of charge.
>>
>> I am now looking at alternatives - mainly at:
>> - TransferWise (https://transferwise.com/)
>> - Revolut (https://revolut.com/)
>>
>> Both have the concept of a global bank account that appears as a local
>> bank account to most countries in the world in the local currencies of the
>> country. They use interbank conversion rates between currencies (cheaper
>> for the customer) and don't charge for their services. Their business model
>> is to earn money (0.5 %) if I withdraw from their account to an account
>> under the same name as the account holder. Given that most of the money is
>> forwarded to other people (reimbursements, payments for devs), this seems
>> to me like much better solution than PayPal.
>>
>> With such accounts we can keep multiple currencies (e.g. €, CHF, GBP,
>> USD, AUD, ZAR, etc.) and only convert money when there is not enough
>> balance for payments in a requested currency.
>>
>> Revolut seems to be slightly cheaper than TransferWise (currently). They
>> also offer a free multi-currency debit card.
>>
>> I will test this as a private person first, and if it works fine, suggest
>> to introduce this for QGIS as well. If it works fine, I could even see this
>> as a full replacement of our existing bank account.
>>
>> Andreas
>>
>> --
>>
>> --
>> Andreas Neumann
>> QGIS.ORG board member (treasurer)
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>
>
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-- 



*Tim Sutton*
QGIS Project Steering Committee Chair
tim at qgis.org
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