About Stripe

Stripe makes it super easy for you to accept payments made by credit or debit card. Here’s a guide to how it works.

Who are Stripe?

Stripe processes billions of pounds a year for thousands of businesses all over the world. It’s a payment system that’s trusted by companies such as Twitter, Kickstarter, ASOS, Pinterest and many more – because making payments with Stripe is easy, secure and fast.

Does Stripe work outside of the UK?

Yes. Stripe is open to people collecting payments in 23 countries, so you can take payments via Stripe if you’re based in any country where Stripe is available to businesses. Your friends and family can be based anywhere in the world and they won’t need to set up an account of any kind. They won’t even have to leave Patchwork to go to an external payment site.

What are Stripe’s fees?

Stripe charges a processing fee of 1.4% + 20p per transaction for UK & European cards, or 2.9% + 20p per transaction for other cards. To read more about how this compares to PayPal’s fees, head to our FAQs.

How do I set up a Stripe account for my patchwork?

You'll be prompted to add a Stripe account when you're making your patchwork. At this point you just need to add your email address
Stripe will then get in touch with a link to their set up form where you will need to add a few additional details
You’ll be accepting payment as an individual — so you don't have to enter a company number or VAT number
For the purposes of this form, your business address is your home address
Once you’ve filled in the form, click the button to authorise access
Return to Patchworkit.com and go to ‘My Profile’. Enter the email address and password you signed up to Stripe with
Your Stripe account is now set up and connected to your Patchwork, and you can immediately begin taking card payments

Stripe activate your account form a1744e8a3aacbdc15cf0387a215c6873ec3b197b0011742d357bc5ceb8fcf920

Funds are automatically transferred to your bank account, every 7 days - you can change this in your Stripe settings and instead choose to withdraw them manually when you’re ready.

Patchwork will notify you via email as soon as each payment is made, and you can also log into your Patchwork account to see everything that has been given, anytime you like.

Are Stripe payments secure?

Yes, very. All of your payments will be made over a secure connection. We won’t have access to the card details used by your friends and family, and although we’ll be able to see the status of payments made to your Stripe account, we won’t be able to access your funds or view the details of your bank account.

Stripe need to verify your identity when you sign up for an account, and if they can’t do that with the account details you provide, they may get in touch with you directly to ask for a few more details. This won’t affect your ability to keep taking payments through your Patchwork.

Can I link both a Stripe and a PayPal account to my Patchwork?

Yes, in fact we recommend it. We think PayPal makes it easy for people with PayPal accounts to send money in an instant, and Stripe makes it easy for people who would rather pay with debit or credit card. So we think linking both accounts covers all bases. If you want to collect funds you’ll need to link one of these payment options in order to publish your patchwork. But you can always add the other at a later date - just go to your profile and link your chosen account from there.

Find out more about the two payment options in our FAQs.

With Patchwork, Stripe and PayPal, it’s possible for you to manage your payments in a way that works for you. We don’t hold your funds and we don’t charge a setup fee. Find out more on our Fees page.