Dwolla is a fantastic idea and provides a great alternative to credit card networks for payments.
One of my sites uses Dwolla as the sole payment processor and also we piggyback off of their verification process to weed out bad actors. I figure that since Dwolla is built off of US banking networks, their user verifications are subject to regulations under the Patriot Act, so probably is good for filtering out the riff-raff from our platform.
Ben Milne seems like a good & thoughtful CEO with a long-term mindset, which is refreshing to see in the tech startup culture.
My biggest gripe is that I constantly get complaints from people outside the US because they can't use Dwolla, and I hate being accused of neglecting our international friends.
I guess my other gripe is that I have thousands of dollars worth of transaction fee credits from referrals... guess those are worthless now :)
To a developer there are few things more annoying than having to speak to someone to get concrete pricing information, n.b. how each plan is marked as "from $xx/m". You have to speak to a sales rep to find out actual costs. Tactics like these put any solution squarely at the bottom of the list for me.
I work at Dwolla. Just want to say that I personally agree with you that clarity around pricing is important for any open platform. Especially when you're comparing a product or service against competing options, concrete pricing is key.
As a developer hacking on a small project, there isn't any cost to use our network. If you're a merchant accepting payments on our network, we'd like to see you enter a package once your business starts to make several hundred transactions a month, but we don't require it. Most businesses end up wanting more advanced features once their volume goes up. The cost of those premium features will depend on your volume and needs. As we learn more about what works best for our partners, I think we'll be able to provide more pricing information up front.
We appreciate your feedback. Our product team will continue to work on providing clear pricing options.
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 145 ms ] threadOne of my sites uses Dwolla as the sole payment processor and also we piggyback off of their verification process to weed out bad actors. I figure that since Dwolla is built off of US banking networks, their user verifications are subject to regulations under the Patriot Act, so probably is good for filtering out the riff-raff from our platform.
Ben Milne seems like a good & thoughtful CEO with a long-term mindset, which is refreshing to see in the tech startup culture.
My biggest gripe is that I constantly get complaints from people outside the US because they can't use Dwolla, and I hate being accused of neglecting our international friends.
I guess my other gripe is that I have thousands of dollars worth of transaction fee credits from referrals... guess those are worthless now :)
Even BTC has a built-in transaction cost with every transaction (only a few pennies, but that's still more than Dwolla).
As a developer hacking on a small project, there isn't any cost to use our network. If you're a merchant accepting payments on our network, we'd like to see you enter a package once your business starts to make several hundred transactions a month, but we don't require it. Most businesses end up wanting more advanced features once their volume goes up. The cost of those premium features will depend on your volume and needs. As we learn more about what works best for our partners, I think we'll be able to provide more pricing information up front.
We appreciate your feedback. Our product team will continue to work on providing clear pricing options.