I'm boiling mad at Patreon. They just shifted their fee structure in a way that increased the cost of my pledges by a whopping 30%, while simultaneously charging Creators a flat 5% fee. That's 35% of my contribution that does NOT make it to the Creators I sponsor!
I prefer to give many small pledges to a large set of Patreon Creators, rather than larger amounts to a few. I feel this best represents my interests, and also ensures I support the less popular of the Creators I admire.
Until today, I have heard nothing negative from the Creators I sponsor about the cut Patreon takes to process and deliver pledges.
I'm listening, and am acting.
I have now decided Patreon has become a vampire, a leach on the system, and is no longer a suitable platform for supporting Creators.
I have halted all my Patreon pledges.
I hope to soon hear what new funding mechanisms my favored Creators prefer, and I will follow them there.
Go to Hell, Patreon.
OK, I feel better now. The underlying problem would appear to be that the US (and the world?) lacks a cost-effective micro-payments system. Which in turn sets the stage for vampires like Patreon to appear and flourish.
Everything is strangled by the 4 major credit card networks, whose fees are growing despite a reduced cost (as a percentage of money transferred) of doing business in general, and a lower cost of transactions in particular.
The excesses in the credit card system are made perfectly evident by the presence of so many "Cash Rewards" cards, which are simply refunding some of the excess to their customers. If you don't have one, get one soon!
A better route may be to use the ACH (Automatic Clearing House), the network used to process EFTs (Electronic Fund Transfers) such as checks, which has a vastly lower transaction fees (though this comes with lower guarantees by the network itself, which are instead taken up by the financial institutions themselves).
The best route may be to build a new micro-payments network from scratch, or expand an improve an existing one.
The Patreon debacle should hopefully cause some engagement on this important financial infrastructure issue.
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