When you come across this question when applying to be a cat sitter, you have nearly completed your profile. So it would be a pity to stop here. And since your concerns are totally justified as you’re not the only one who asks this question, we have prepared a short and hopefully reassuring explanation.
1. What is Stripe? Should I trust the system?
Stripe is an online payment processor, similar to Paypal, offering their service in 25 countries across the world. Companies such as Unicef, Lyft and Deliveroo use Stripe as their payment service.
In our case, Stripe provides the technical, fraud prevention, and banking infrastructure that allows all cat owners to send money and all cat sitters to receive money over the internet while Cat in a Flat coordinates the transfer - No chasing the payment, no haggling.
As Stripe is not a bank but “only” a payment processor for money transfer, it has limited access to your account and is only allowed to transfer the money you specifically approved (in our case, money that comes through cat sitting with Cat in a Flat).
2.1 Why does Stripe request Direct Debit Permission for the UK sitters?
Stripe only reserve permission to access the money you earned through Cat in a Flat for the unlikely event of a refund. It therefore needs your permission for Direct Debit transfers. It has no control or transparency to any other money transfer of your account.
2.2 Why does Stripe require a IBAN and Identification Number from sitters in the European continent ?
The IBAN number is of course necessary to know where the money should be transferred to. Personal Identification Number (PIN) is necessary to verify you as a registered person and owner of the account.
Stripe always applies the highest security measures and might send you further verification requests over time to make sure you are still an active user and your contact details are up-to-date. Please answer all emails swiftly, as it is in all our interest to build a safe and trusted cat sitter community.
3. Why not Paypal? Everybody knows it.
Of course we thought so too.
However, while Paypal may be more widely distributed, Stripe offers better control over refunds, partial refund or payment corrections in the event of changed travel plans or canceled flights.
With Paypal, both sides must be linked in some way to the payment system. Stripe, however, allows the paying cat owner to pay without being previously connected to an online payment service as long as they have a credit card, debit card number or an IBAN (depending on the country Stripe offers Giro, Sofort and iDEAL as well).
4. What happens to my data?
Only Stripe has your bank account details. Cat in a Flat has no access or transparency into it, we can only direct you, the cat sitter, into your connected Stripe dashboard where you can change it. However, Cat in a Flat can see the list of your earnings as a cat sitter and can re-activate invoices for the owner (usually this arrives automatically once payment has gone through).
5. How safe is Stripe?
Cat in a Flat has been using Stripe for almost 4 years and have made thousands and thousands of transfers successfully. So we can confidently say, it is a very safe payment system. More and more companies choose Stripe as it is now a reliable, recognised and international payment service.
We hope that we managed to eliminate any doubts and we can welcome you to our cat sitting community.
If you should, however, still have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us
Cat in a Flat
The Trusted Cat Sitting Community
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