Stripe Image via Stripe
Eric Gockel

Written by Eric Gockel

Share

At cre8, and for many of our clients, we had been using authorize.net for credit transactions for many years. We decided to make the switch from Authorize.net to Stripe for a few reasons.

First, since we’re developers and user experience designers, we were curious how it worked and the documentation and admin screens looked a lot better from what we currently had with Authorize.net.

Second, we were going thru a name and entity change for cre8, from Inc to LLC, so that required getting a new checking account, as well as getting new accounts/paperwork with Authorize.net since we were operating with a new FEIN.

This would require changes with not only Authorize.net, but our payment gateway Chase as well. Oh, and we were taking American Express cards thru them which would require updating our info with Amex too.

So I decided to just go ahead and sign up with Stripe and have our developer, John, look at the docs and see what would be involved with switching over to Stripe.

Switching Day

Since our app bills on a monthly cycle, we had a minimal impact on our users. We did have to ask our users to re-enter their payment info since we switched payment providers, however no one had any problems using the new system. All charges started routing to Stripe the morning we did the flip.

You can accept payments from Visa, American Express, Discover and Diners Club right out of the gate too, no extra or special agreements necessary.

Even More Payments

Stripe has additional payment options too, if you need them. All can be activated or requested via invite (for betas) easily via the Payments > Settings page, not buried somewhere or phone call(s) required.

  • Alipay
    Zhifubao in Chinese, Alipay is a third-party mobile and online payment platform, established in Hangzhou, China.
  • Bitcoin
    If you’re new to the party, Bitcoin is a worldwide cryptocurrency and digital payment system referred to as the first decentralized digital currency, as the system works without a central repository or single administrator.
  • SEPA Direct Debit
    SEPA Direct Debit enables customers in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) to pay by providing their bank account details. Customers must accept a mandate authorizing you to debit their account.
  • WeChat Pay (Beta)
    WeChat Pay enables Chinese consumers to pay directly via online transfer from their account. Customers are given a QR Code to scan using their WeChat mobile application to approve payments.

Refunds

Altho we didn’t have them often, even the task of refunding a payment is much easier in Stripe. On Authorize, you first have to do a Transaction Search, pick a Settlement Date range to get your recent payments. Stripe, on the other hand, simply has a Payments link on the sidebar, showing the most recent with a filter you can use if needed with action links off to the right for quick access.

Back on Authorize, when get your list of transactions, you’ll have to click the Trans ID number first to get a popup of the transaction from which then you can Refund.

We’re now in the process of cancelling our old accounts with Authorize, Chase Paymentech and Amex and getting any necessary exports and reports needed for year-end accounting.

Fraud Detection

Stripe includes Radar, a suite of tools for fraud detection and prevention. The core of Radar is powered by adaptive machine learning. Radar’s algo’s evaluate every transaction for fraud risk. High risk payments are blocked by default, but Radar provides tools so you can customize what types of actions should happen.

Radar includes an easy to use Blocklist where you can also enter in card numbers and email addresses that will be set to the highest risk level, which will be blocked along with CVC verification failures. You can also add your own rules, as shown below:

Email Receipts

If your website isn’t set up to send receipts, you can customize the design in the Business Settings section and have them emailed from Stripe.

Update 3/18

Stripe just added a new Developers section to their dashboard to assist you in building and managing your Stripe integrations. You can manage API upgrades and monitor webhook and API usage in real time.

In Summary

If you’re already set up with Authorize.net, have a large number of daily transactions and your development environment is complex, you may want to weigh making a switch.

But, if you’re just starting out, or have low volume and an easy-to-update environment, you should consider Stripe for your payment processing.

Startup Friendly

Speaking of starting out, if you truly are just getting started, Stripe has a startup toolkit called Atlas which handles and includes:

Tags
Authorize.netStripe