#benk-connect
ionic void
dreamy palm
hey Karbi
ionic void
Hello!
I'm not familiar with Dwolla, but at a high level, it sounds like what you want to be using is Connect (https://stripe.com/connect). You'd have each of your merchant partners have a connect account, which you can transfer funds to that they'll pay out to their bank
dreamy palm
What I'm after is to simply send money to the merchant's bank account. They enter their bank account info on our app, we send them money weekly for whatever we owe them.
We don't want them to create a Stripe account and manage anything on there
Mind you, we already use Stripe for collecting funds from clients. So if there's a way to accomplish this directly from our stripe account, that could be potentially very beneficial
Looks like this maybe? https://stripe.com/connect/payouts
ionic void
That uses Connect - Unfortunately, Connect would be the only way to facilitate this.
dreamy palm
Reading...
Karbi, please bare with me. I know this will be annoying to you, but I'm trying to figure this out and see if we can make it work. I will have a bunch of questions for you. May I?
ionic void
Go ahead!
dreamy palm
Thank you!
So you understand what's going on. We have an app, called DineDen, that lets clients purchase meals from restaurants.
We currently use Stripe to have the clients add a credit card and use it to fund a virtual wallet. They use the credit they have in their virtual wallet to get meals.
We have restaurant partners (merchants) and we record how much we need to pay them..
The merchants add their bank account and routing info to their profile on DineDen and we want to use that info to pay them once a week.
We prefer that the merchants will have zero interaction with any third party service (stripe) if possible. So I envision something like:
merchant sign up and adds bank info to profile > We create a record on Stripe via API for the merchant, then once a week we (possibly) send them money we owe them
How would it work with stripe, based on what I wrote, keeping in mind that we want Stripe to run in the background (via API) if possible.
ionic void
If you don't want your merchant to have ANY interaction with Stripe, you could accomplish this with Custom connect accounts (https://stripe.com/docs/connect/custom-accounts) - when they set up their DineDen account you'd also create a Stripe custom connect account through the API and use your own UI to collect all the necessary information.
You'd transfer funds (https://stripe.com/docs/api/transfers) from your Stripe account to their connect accuont and when they add the bank information to their profile, you'd also add that as an external account (https://stripe.com/docs/api/external_accounts) for use with payouts on their custom connect account. You can also configure these custom connect accounts to automatically payout once a week (see https://stripe.com/docs/connect/manage-payout-schedule).
dreamy palm
Nice! I will read through this right away. And what about fees for this? (all and any fees)
ionic void
For fees specifically I'd suggest asking support (https://support.stripe.com/contact) - they'll be better positioned to answer any pricing questions
dreamy palm
I see an issue on https://stripe.com/docs/connect/custom-accounts#requirements
Handling information requests—Instead of requesting information—such as a Social Security Number or passport scan—directly from your user, Stripe requests the information it needs from you. You must collect this information from your user and provide it to Stripe. Otherwise, Stripe may disable payouts to the connected account.
Will we actually need to ask them to provide their social ?
Yeah, it's a bit of an issue
We are sending money to businesses
Not individuals
ionic void
That depends on a number of different factors like your country, the type of capabilities your requesting, etc. (see https://stripe.com/docs/connect/required-verification-information#US-full-company--transfers)
dreamy palm
we don't want to ask them for any info other than their bank account details
oh reading...
ionic void
Again, it'll really depend on a number of factors, but it sounds like you only need the transfer capability which should lower the amount of requirements you need.
dreamy palm
Yeah, I selected transfers, but I also need to put in the company type. I'm guessing this will require me to add an interface asking the merchants to select their company type, and then depending on it, I will need to ask for a bunch of info
ionic void
Yeah, this is all information you'd ask for in your own UI
dreamy palm
gotcha. Thanks Karbi. Super helpful!