Ask HN: Any Way to Sidestep Stripe's "alternate currency payout fee"

1 day ago 4

Our partner nonprofit foundation has a Stripe account that has two bank accounts linked to it. The Foundation is based in Europe. The Foundation receives donations in Euros (the default currency on Stripe automatically, since it's based in Europe) and is sent to the EUR bank account. However, the Foundation also receives donations in USD. It has a USD bank account also linked to the Stripe account.

Basically, I don't understand why Stripe levies a 1% alternative currency payout fee to pay out USD to the Foundation's USD bank account that is linked? They don't need to convert the currency or anything. Seems extremely straightforward for Stripe to be able to send USD to the linked USD account.

I know Stripe is a private company and can do whatever it wants regarding fees, but would prefer to not lose 1% of the donations because of this rule. I get that USD is not what the currency is in Europe, but why is that the basis for a 1% fee to be charged?? Maybe I'm missing something. Does anyone have a creative solution around this?

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