Stripe Payments Review: Security, Cost and Key Features (UK)

If you’re an entrepreneur or business owner looking for easier ways to receive customer payments online and in person, you’ve probably heard of Stripe¹. As a super popular payment processing service, Stripe offers a full range of merchant services including low and no code options to get paid easily.

Not sure if Stripe is right for your business? Before you sign up, check out this Stripe payments review for all you need to know about Stripe UK fees, features, and service options.

We'll also touch the benefits of connecting Stripe with Wise Business when receiving payments with foreign currencies.

💡Learn more about Wise Business

What is Stripe?

Stripe was set up in 2009 and is now available in around 45 countries globally, offering payment processing solutions and merchant services which can suit any business from a start-up to a well established enterprise level organisation.

Stripe payments UK has a selection of tools to let businesses receive payments from customers, in person, through apps, and online. Depending on your preferences, technical knowhow and needs, you can choose from easy integrations, low and no code options which let you get started in minutes - or build a tailor made solution to fit your specific needs if you’d prefer.

Is Stripe safe?

Yes. Stripe is safe to use, and a level 1 Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) provider².

To maintain this status, Stripe has to have a number of security measures in place including annual onsite audits, quarterly checks, processes to to spot and correct any vulnerabilities, and industry level security to prevent malware and viruses³. It’s also good to know Stripe is reliable: globally Stripe handles 250 million or more API requests a day, and has a historical uptime of over 99.999%.

How does Stripe work?

Stipe is at its core a payments gateway. That means it allows businesses to receive secure card payments by helping to relay messages to the other parties involved in processing a card payment, including the card network and issuing bank.

When you accept a payment through Stripe, your customer will enter their card details, which are encrypted and passed to the card network. The card network will confirm whether or not a payment can be approved with the bank that issued the card, by checking there’s enough balance in the account to support a debit card payment for example⁴.

As a business owner you can register with Stripe pretty easily, and you’ll be able to quickly start to take online payments. You can either choose a prebuilt checkout page, which you can then add your own branding to, or build your own customised solution using the Stripe developer tools if you’d prefer.

If you’re taking payments using social media you can also get a payment link which you can send to customers to have them pay you - an option which can be up and running in minutes.

Stripe payments review

Let’s move on to our Stripe payments review. We’ll look in detail at the Stripe key features and how they work for start-ups and for enterprise level customers.

Before you decide on a payment processing partner, it’s also worth getting a feel for the way their existing customers rate them. For example, Stripe scores 2.9 stars out of 5 on Trustpilot⁵, which aggregates live reviews from customers. While that’s not a great score, it’s interesting to note that 48% of the respondents gave Stripe 5 stars, while 41% only posted a 1 star review.

In some cases where the reviews were poor, this was due to Stripe users having their accounts frozen by Stripe while they were being checked for security. Stripe customer service does respond to both good and bad reviews on Trustpilot, showing it is actively working to manage customer experience.

Trustpilot offers live and dynamic review ratings, so it’s worth checking before you commit to Stripe, to see the latest comments from customers.

Stripe key features

Stripe has a pretty broad range of products and services to help business owners get paid on and off line, as well as having a number of options to allow businesses to manage their finances more broadly. Some Stripe features include:

• Services split by business stage - from start-up to enterprise
• Online payments using a pre built payment form or customizable payment UIs (User Interfaces)
• No code payment links
• Terminals for in person payments
• Fraud and risk management support
• Subscription management
• Online ID verification
• Invoicing services
• Sales tax and VAT automation, and accounting automation options
• Startup incorporation
• Banking as a Service options to embed financial services in a business platform or product

Stripe for Start-ups⁶

Stripe splits out its service offerings by business size and stage. For UK start-ups, Stripe offers solutions for businesses in the following niches in particular:

• SaaS
• Marketplaces
• Banking as a Service
• E-commerce
• Crypto
• Creator economy

While the range of Stripe products can all be accessed by start-up businesses, Stripe offers some services which have start-ups in mind in particular, including:

• Payment links - no code option to let you generate shareable, reusable payment links for customer transactions
• Invoicing - no code option to quickly and conveniently generate invoices which are easy for customers to pay
• Subscriptions - low code option which offers a range of different payment models, from pay per usage to negotiated contracts
• Prebuilt checkout - low code option which provides an optimised payment form you can add your own branding to, to accept card payments
• In-person payments - Stripe payment terminals for card payments, as well as options to accept payments using nothing more than your normal smartphone

Stripe for enterprises⁷

Stripe is also a very popular payment processing partner for UK enterprises. As a large and reliable payment gateway, many large companies use Stripe for some or all of their payment processing, as well as other services like fraud prevention.

Here are some of the main features created by Stripe with larger enterprises in mind:

• Global payments - get paid from 47 countries, using 50+ payment methods and 135 currencies
• Platform payments - offer financial services through your business platform, make payouts and route funds
• Finance automation - automated back office processes, such as tax, accounting and VAT processing

Stripe UK fees

Stripe charges on a pay-per-use basis. That means there’s not normally any ongoing monthly charge to pay - although larger businesses can also build a custom made Stripe package if that’s better for them.

Let’s look at the main fees Stripe charges in the UK. We’ve not covered every single product Stripe offers, so it’s important to take a more detailed look at their pricing structure when you’re figuring out if Stripe is the right solution for you. You can also read more on Stripe UK fees in our full Stripe fees guide.

If you may receive Stripe payments on a currency other than GBP, consider connecting Stripe and Wise Business to withdraw Stripe balances in foreign currencies and convert them into GBP with Wise with the mid-market exchange rate.

💡Learn more about Wise Business

Stripe customer service

Stripe customer service is available via several different channels, 24/7. You can talk to a team member by phone, chat and email, get technical support on discord, and access a knowledge base which covers lots of common questions and topics⁹.

• You can email Stripe support and you’ll get a response within 24 hours
• You can log into Stripe and start a secure chat - 3 minute average waiting time
• You can request a phone call from Stripe - 3 minute average waiting time

There’s no inbound Stripe customer service phone number, so if you want to talk to a member of the team you’ll need to request a callback, which should only take a few minutes.

Receive Stripe payments with Wise Business account

Stripe can be used to accept payments in 135+ currencies. While you can have Stripe convert your foreign currency payment to GBP if you’d like, this is not always the most economical option. You may pay Stripe fees, and you might not get the very best available exchange rate.

Solve this problem with Wise Business. With a Wise Business account you can hold 40+ currencies, to receive, send and spend money globally with ease. Plus you can get paid from PSPs like Stripe with local bank details, allowing you to receive money in the currencies your customers prefer to pay in.

Open a Wise Business account online or in the Wise app, and connect it to your Stripe account. You’ll be able to receive money to Wise in 9 currencies like a local, converting to GBP - or any other currency you need - with the mid-market rate and low and transparent fees from 0.43%¹⁰.

Or, just leave the money in its original currency, and use it to settle business payments abroad later. That means you’re not forced to convert funds unnecessarily between currencies, making doing business across borders smoother and cheaper.

Get started withWise Business 🚀

About the author:
	Paola is an expert in business finance topics for the Great Britain market, covering everything finance teams need to know to manage business finances across borders. She creates high quality content to help you make the best cross-border decisions. You can read more useful articles on her author profile.

Stripe is understandably popular in the UK thanks to its broad suite of services for all business types. It’s quick to sign up, and there are options for beginners and people with little technical coding skill, as well as fully customisable tools for larger companies. Use this guide to decide if Stripe is right for your UK business - and don’t forget to check out Wise Business as well, for easy ways to get paid in a selection of currencies, from around the world.

Sources used in this article:

Sources last checked November 16, 2023