Stripe payment gateway: a good fit for your business in India?

"While Stripe is a great company with great tech, it doesn’t have popular Indian payment options that many Indian-based gateways can provide. But if you are looking at international customers, this could be a strong option."

The American payment provider Stripe has arrived in India, and offers strong tech for both businesses and individuals. Read on to learn more about how Stripe in India works and how it may be a good option for you and your businesses.

📝 Table of contents
Pricing and fees Is it safe? Payment options International payments Settlement time Customer care

Stripe payment gateway pricing and fees

Stripe has a simple pricing plan- whether you are a business or a freelancer. It doesn’t have any no setup or monthly fees, and you will only be charged per successful transaction.

⚠️ Stripe allows for domestic and international transactions only for businesses that are registered as a Company, LLP or Sole Proprietorship in India. If you are an individual, you can only receive transactions within India but not from abroad.

Here is what to expect for charges on transactions with Stripe India:

Type of card	Fee
Mastercard issued in India	2%
Visa issued in India	2%
American Express issued in India	3.5%
Mastercard or Visa from outside India	3%
American Express from outside India	3.5%
Other international cards	4.3%

And if there are currency conversions required on a transaction, Stripe will charge a 2% fee on each transaction.

Currency conversions take place when a customer makes a purchase in a currency that is not Indian rupees. And then the payment has to be converted to deposit into your Indian account.

If you have a large volume of sales or have microtransactions, you can speak directly to Stripe’s sales to get a customized pricing plan for you.

There is also a larger Enterprise pricing plan that incorporates volume discounts, account management, migration assistance and specialized support for businesses that are scaling. You can speak to the Sales team directly to understand the Stripe Enterprise package better.¹

While Stripe is a great company with great tech, it doesn’t have popular Indian payment options that many Indian-based gateways can provide. But if you are looking at international customers, this could be a strong option.

Is Stripe payment gateway safe?

Stripe is a very safe company that is used by millions of businesses in major markets, either for their software or through Stripe APIs. Stripe has been a payment solution for all different sizes and types of companies, whether a startup or large corporation.

Here are a few companies in India, and abroad, that use Stripe:

• Amazon
• Slack
• Nalli
• Jaypore
• Shopify
• Zoom

Stripe’s systems also have a 99.9% uptime, and are certified to the highest compliance standard.

😯 Fun fact: There are 13,000 API requests per second on Stripe. And 90% of all US adults have made purchases from businesses using Stripe.²

Payment options supported with Stripe

Here are the payment options available to customers when using Stripe:³

• Visa debit or credit cards
• Mastercard debit or credit cards
• American Express cards issued in India, or in US dollars

Although Stripe has robust tech, Stripe India has limited payment options versus local Indian payment gateways that offer netbanking, wallets or EMIs. Even popular methods of payments, like UPI, are not available on Stripe.

But what it does have going for it, is that Stripe does accept international payments easily.

Stripe international payments

Stripe is strongest for international customers and payments. As an Indian company you can use Stripe to accept over 135 currency payments. And receive the payouts into your Indian bank account.

But there are two main ways to go about international payments. And it depends on where the majority of your business is coming from.

If the majority of your payments are going to be in India, and a few are international then you can keep the standard account. If most of your payments are actually coming from outside India, you can localize the currency shown.

Here is a quick table to show how Stripe looks at international payments:⁴

	If most of your payments are from India	If most of your payments are from abroad
Types of payments	Visa, Mastercard & Amex	Visa, Mastercard and Amex in USD
Currency shown	Indian Rupees	135+ currencies
Current settled	Indian Rupees	Indian Rupees or US dollars
Documents required	No	Importer or Exporter code required and Payment advance sheet
International Processing fee	3%	4.3%
Currency Conversion fee	2% possible charge	2% possible charge

💸 International transfers are fast, simple, and cheap with the Wise Web/Android/ iOS app

Indian businesses and freelancers can sign up with Wise Business Account to get account details in 8 different currencies to receive payments from abroad. Your clients pay you with a local transfer in their currency, and you receive rupees in your INR bank account — with eFIRC for every transfer. That is truly business without borders.

Open your Wise Business Account 🚀

Stripe settlement time

Stripe in India settles at the end of every day automatically, but it will take 5 business days for the processed payment to reach your bank account.

Since it is automatic, you can not set the payout time manually, as users in other countries can do with Stripe. Any weekend or holiday payments will be processed on the next business day in India. ⁵

Stripe customer care

Stripe customer care is available 24/7 through different mediums, and is ideal for more tech-savvy users.

Stripe first has a thorough FAQs section on their website to help any users with troubleshooting issues.

Next, once you are a Stripe user, you can get help quickly through your Stripe dashboard. Whether it's for payments, accounts, processing or orders, you can work through the dashboard to find a resolution.

You can also email Stripe through their website. You can type in your question, input your email address, and upload any relevant files and then hit Submit. It’ll send your query to Stripe and you’ll receive a confirmation at the listed email address. ⁶

---

Sources used for this article:

1. Stripe Pricing
2. Stripe payment safety
3. Payment options
4. International payments
5. Settlement
6. Customer care

All sources checked as of 12 October, 2021