Patreon & International Currencies (also, Ko-fi)

The tale of Patreon and international currencies has been a bit of a... thing?  I guess?

Those of you who support multiple Patreon campaigns might know more about this from better hooked-in creators than me.  But as far as I can tell, it goes like this:

Patreon initially allowed creators and patrons only to take/send payments in USD.  This was straightforward but not great for those of us having to take a hit on conversion rates one way or the other.

So Patreon allowed new creators to set up campaigns in USD, GBP, EUR or CAD.  This was after I first started my Patreon, though.  And existing creators were stuck with USD, like it or not, while Patreon worked out a fix.

The "fix" is now in.  Sorta.

So if your source currency is GBP, and you back me at $2, you will, in fact, pay me £2.  If your source currency is EUR and you back at $3, you'll pay me €3.  If your source currency is CAD and you back at $5, you'll pay me CA$7.

Confused yet?  If you want to know how much you are actually going to be paying, check the table in the image above.

What I'm yet to find out is what I end up getting paid.  I think all of your contributions, in whatever currency, will be converted to USD before they're paid to me.  I have no idea what conversion rate Patreon plans to use.

In their defence, though, this is a reasonable median step before allowing me to convert my creator currency to GBP.  If it works, I'll get all of your payments in GBP.

That said, I find it kind of useful to have USD in my PayPal account, because I frequently conduct business with US retailers (mainly WGV, but others too) and it's handy to be able to do that in USD without losing out on PayPal's exchange rate.  But I think, overall, this is a reasonable step by Patreon - albeit very f***ing confusing for people supporting Patreons in a currency that's not their own.

Ko-fi

However, on another note, a quick thank you to the patron who recently followed my neglected Ko-fi Page.  It's inspired me to update it and promote it a bit more.  It allows people who can't commit to a monthly subscription to occasionally tip me for my extra content (like the podcast and livestreams) and also lets patrons "boost" their support now and then if they can only commit to support at a low-ish level on a monthly basis but occasionally feel moved to add a little extra, like a tip jar.

I'm going to dig into Ko-fi to see if it offers any functionality that Patreon doesn't and I'll keep you updated.