Why there isn’t a $1 Tier on RandoWis

For context: Pixiv is an online artist community site based in Japan, and fans can support their favourite creators by subscribing to a monthly pledge on their pixivFANBOX platform. I do have a pixivFANBOX account, and on that account fans can support me for ¥100, ¥300, ¥500, and ¥700 (around USD $1, $3, $5, & $7 respectively).

So, why is there a ¥100 (~$1 USD) tier on pixivFANBOX and not here?
In short; the credit card processor which I’m using here takes about 50% of a $1 dollar tier.

What do I mean?

I’ve currently integrated my site with “Stripe”, a credit card processing company that makes their profits by taking a percentage fee of every transaction made. That fee (for my country) would be 3.4% + 50 cents. You can see it yourself by clicking here.

How is this a problem?

Well, the problem is the flat + 50 cents. This means that the lower the transaction amount, the higher the percentage that Stripe would take.  

So, using the $1 tier as an example; for every $1 transaction, Stripe would take 3.4% + 50 cents = 53 cents. In other words, Stripe takes a whopping 53% of the $1 tier (HOLY SHIT). Honestly, you’d be supporting Stripe more and RandoWis less in this case.  

If we used the $3 tier as an example; for every $3 transaction, Stripe would take 3.4% + 50 cents = 59 cents. $0.59 would be 19% of $3.  

“The lower the transaction amount, the higher the percentage taken.”

Unlike what is advertised, majority of a $1 pledge isn’t going into supporting RandoWis (which technically makes me a fraud, haha).  

“What about pixivFANBOX?”, you might ask.

pixivFANBOX takes a flat 10% of the total amount earned. Another way to look at it, is that for every $1 pledged there, pixivFANBOX takes 10 cents. Arigatou gozaimasu, FANBOX senpai.

The solution?

It pains me to say this, but in order for most of a supporter’s money to go into actually supporting RandoWis, and to make the tiers viable for me to even earn from, tiers are going to begin at $3 on this site.

I hope this helps you understand why a $1 tier is not an option available here.
– RandoWis