Currency choice for creators
At this time, most creators are still being paid and pricing their tiers in US Dollars, but creators who launched on or after February 11th, 2020 have been able to choose between USD $, EUR €, or GBP £ for their default currency to both be paid out and display their tier prices. Creators who launched before that date that want to change their default currency will be able to do so within the next couple of months, before we enable patron currency choice for everyone.
Currency choice for audiences and patrons
Starting on August 5th, 2020, we’ll automatically enable currency choice for audiences and patrons of creators who launched on or after that date. This means that audiences who visit their page will see the tiers priced in their local currency if they use USD $, EUR €, or GBP £. If they don’t use any of those 3 currencies, we will display the tier price in the creator’s payout currency. Any existing creators who launched before August 5th, 2020 can opt into these new currencies if they choose, until October 5th, 2020 when we will automatically enable currency choice for everyone.
For creators based in the UK and EU who are interested in switching their payout currency, we'd recommend waiting to opt in until we roll out the ability for creators to change their payout currency to GBP and EUR. We expect this to be available in the next couple of months.
Opting into currency choice for patrons
To give existing Patreon creators plenty of time to adjust to these changes, existing creators will have between August 5th and October 5th to opt in to enable currency choice on their page. On October 5th we will automatically enable this for everyone. New creators who launch on Patreon on or after August 5th will automatically have this enabled.
If you would like to opt in to displaying your tier prices in multiple currencies now, follow these steps:
- Head to your creator settings.
- In the Account tab, scroll down past "Your Plan" to view the new settings for Accepting Other Currencies.
- Click the Opt in button to enable this feature.
Existing creators in the EU and UK
In the coming months we’ll give creators the ability to switch their payout currency to Euros (€), British Pounds (£) or U.S. Dollars ($).
In order to prevent existing creators in the UK and EU from being subject to additional, external conversion fees on their payout balance in this interim stage we’re also allowing existing creators in the UK and Europe the ability to opt into currency choice until that time, which may be sooner than October 5th.
How currency choice works
Key things to know
How your tier prices are converted
Here’s how this would look in practice:
We’ve mapped this out visually over 3 years - if you’re a creator in the US and launch with a $5 tier, your audience in the UK in year 1 may see £4 when they land on your page. If there’s a significant shift in the market, we’ll update the price book for year 2. In that scenario, only new patrons joining in year 2 will see the updated tier price. Existing patrons will continue paying what they originally agreed to. Similarly if the market shifts and we update the Price Book for year 3, only new patrons pledging after that point will see the updated tier price.
NOTE: All prices and dates are illustrative.
You can preview your tier prices in other currencies in the tier editor by clicking the preview link right below your tier price.
Previewing your page in different currencies
You can preview your public page and tiers in any of the available currencies. To do so, from your Creator Page click the option to view your public page. Scroll to the footer to view a Currency Selector next to the Region Selector, clicking the Currency Selector will allow you to choose which currency your page is previewed in. This is only visible to you and will not change any other creator or patron settings.
Patron Relationship Manager will display the patron’s currency in their pledge amount. This is also detailed in the individual patron view, but each patron’s Lifetime Value and the amount you receive is shown in your currency. Similarly, when you download your CSV report from Patron Relationship Manager, this will show amounts in your payout currency.
For more currency detail, you now have access to a CSV in your Income Dashboard with a row per patron payment breaking out basic earnings information, plus:
- Patron amount and currency charged
- Patron tax amount/currency
- Daily exchange rate
- Creator earnings
- Currency conversion fee
To download this CSV, head to your Income Dashboard and then in the top right of the screen click Download Detail CSV.
What happens to the difference once it’s rounded?
The rounding difference goes to the creator.
This fee is to cover the cost of Patreon handling the currency conversion. Currency conversion fees are commonly charged by any company converting currency such as payment processors, banks, or other platforms that process payments as part of their business, for example Etsy, or PayPal.
Why are the conversion fees shifted on to the creator?
We are offering currency choice to help increase patron conversion and provide international audiences with a better experience. In doing so, this does shift currency conversion fees from the patron to the creator. However, we have added an additional buffer of 4.5% and we round up to the nearest 50 cents when we display the converted tier price which helps balance that out. In working with creators offering currency choice, we learned that audiences from the UK and Europe are converting over 30% better when they can pay in their own currency, so we do expect this to help you get more patrons signing up.
I’m not in the US and Paypal/Payoneer already charge a conversion fee. Will I be subject to both fees?
For creators in the UK and EU who are interested in switching their payout currency, in order to avoid being subject to additional conversion fees on your balance, we'd recommend waiting to opt in until we roll out the ability for creators to change their payout currency to GBP and EUR. We expect this to be available in the next couple of months.
Will I be notified if a current patron changes their currency?
To avoid inundating creators with notifications, we do not notify you when a patron changes their currency. You can view the currency choice of your patron in Patron Relationship Manager by downloading the .csv available to you.
How will my audience and patrons find out about these available currencies?
We recommend letting your audience know about the ability to pledge in their local currency of USD $, EUR €, or GBP £. We’ve compiled some suggested messaging you can use to share a post with existing patrons, as well as some suggestions for how to message this across your socials.
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Post title: Pledging in Euros (€), British Pounds (£) or U.S. Dollars ($) Hi everyone, I wanted to share some good news. Everyone in the UK, EU and U.S. can now pledge my Patreon in their local currency of Euros (€), British Pounds (£) or U.S. Dollars ($). This will help prevent you paying extra conversion fees from your bank or card when pledging in a currency that’s not your own. Any new visitors to my page will see my tiers priced in their local currency of €, £, or $. For those of you who would like to switch your preferred currency you can follow these steps:
For those of you outside of these currencies, you’ll continue to see your pledge priced in my currency. Check out this help center article if you have questions about changing your currency, or this article if you have questions about how tiers are priced in these new currencies.
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For those of you in the [UK, EU, US] - you can now join my Patreon/get access to [insert benefit] and pay in your own currency! [link to creator page/tier] |