[Qgis-psc] More on PayPal and alternatives

[Sandro Santilli]

Just saying: bitcoin value rocketed up to 4K USD...
IMHO the more input channels exist, the better.
Donors would have a lower barrier to contribtute.

--strk;

On Tue, Aug 22, 2017 at 03:02:40PM +0200, Tim Sutton wrote:
> 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)