#Rajbarath
hot bramble
@verbal marten which country is your platform based in? and are your connected accounts based in the same region as your platform?
verbal marten
@hot bramble - Thank you for your response. platform is based in US. yes, connected accounts are also based in the same region as platform.
hot bramble
so what i would suggest is to use separate charges and transfers : https://stripe.com/docs/connect/charges-transfers
You can create an invoice and then create a transfer to the service provider .
you would need to ensure you have sufficient balance by topping up your account since it's likely that your platform may not have sufficient funds to transfer to the connected account : https://stripe.com/docs/connect/top-ups
verbal marten
Ok @hot bramble . so what would happen to the invoice status? would it remain as uncollectible?
hot bramble
that's up to you / the customer
if the customer pays the invoice later, it will change to paid
otherwise if you collect the money "out of band" then you can update the invoice status to paid
verbal marten
ok @hot bramble - thanks. i am wondering, if the customer makes a payment, it would double pay the service provider again. reason is, per current logic, paying the invoice, initiates a charge and transfer to connected account automatically. so in case in future, if customer pays the outstanding, the helper would get another transfer. i was thinking, if i can reverse this transfer and collected fees.
@hot bramble - another question - for initiating transfer - you mentioned platform has sufficient funds. what if we initiate a transfer when there is no fund in platform account? will it fail, or it will still go through but would create a negative balance for platform account?
@hot bramble - is there a api integration which will help determine if a customer has payment method or not and if it exists is it valid or not?
hot bramble
looks like right now, you're either using direct / destination charges. Yes, you can reverse the transfer and collected fees from the connected account. But keep in mind that Stripe will charge you Stripe fees.
A transfer will fail if you attempt it without sufficient funds in your platform account
you can see what payment methods a customer has using : https://stripe.com/docs/api/payment_methods/list
verbal marten
yes @hot bramble - we are using direct/destination charge. i believe when i tried reversing the transfer from connected account, i didn't see the stripe fee. but let me check that again.
on the other hand, is there a way to configure a reserve amount for the platform account, to avoid such failures. please advise.
hot bramble
usually i would suggest increasing the interval of your payouts e.g. monthly, and then topping up your Stripe account balance from time to time
there's no way to set aside a reserve amount specifically for transferring to connected accounts
verbal marten
ok @hot bramble . Thanks one last question. what is recommended considering these exceptional scenarios as outcomes - using
- direct/destination charge or
- "creating seperate charges and transfer".
Looks like, in these error cases, option 2 gives more control than 1. what does stripe recommend?
hot bramble
sorry, i misunderstood one point before. To clarify, you wouldn't pay Stripe fees for a transfer, so you can ignore that particular bit i mentioned before
i personally do think that 1. is still easier for you. Because you would only do the transfer if your customer does not pay. If your customer pays, the transfer would be automatic.
If you do 2, you would need to implement the logic even when your customer pays
the thing which you need to be careful of, is to ensure that the double transfer is not paid out before you can reverse it.
verbal marten
yes sure. thanks @hot bramble . i also made a note on your comment on the stripe fees on transfer. thanks for rechecking again.
hot bramble
you're welcome!