Stripe Connect Account and Issuing

[S. Arsalan Zaidi]

Hi Guys, I feel we're really stuck here. 

So Let me break it down: 

We're an instant delivery company who will be Issuing Cards to our Delivery Personnel to shop from the stores and delivery to customers. 

So far we have been able to achieve: 

1. We've successfully been able to create a Connect Account
2. Connect account has all capabilities (including issuing)

Question: I believe we have to create a Card Holder on Behalf of the Connect Account using APIs - which we successfully did - but the card that reached the Holder had no logo or company branding even though we had all settings in place. 

Secondly, we can send transactions from Customer to the Connect Account. 

But how do we send this amount to the relevant Delivery Person's card so he can shop from the store and delivery to the customer? 

and Finally, how do we settle all transactions to the company, the rider, the customer and to stripe if any. 

Please help - really stuck here. 

[Rob Zimmerman]

Hi there!

Just to double check: have you confirmed that issuing cards directly on the connected accounts is the best approach for your use case? You can instead set up each shopper as a Cardholder on your platform and then control their spending and authorizations all on the platform. Any funds come directly from your platform's Issuing balance. You'd then use the connected accounts just to pay your couriers their fees (i.e. whatever amount you owe them for making the deliveries, you transfer to the individual's connected account). You don't have to manage individual branding settings, transferring funds used for purchases, etc.

Usually, having the cards be directly on the connected accounts means that the connected accounts will be loading funds themselves (through the platform) and spending them on their own purchases. It sounds like your use case is better served by having the platform control the cardholders+cards+funds and then using the connected accounts for paying your couriers.

To summarize:

• Create a Cardholder on the platform account, representing the courier, and issue them a card: https://stripe.com/docs/issuing/cards
• Update spending controls when the courier needs to make a purchase: https://stripe.com/docs/issuing/controls/spending-controls
• Authorize purchases in real time, if needed: https://stripe.com/docs/issuing/controls/real-time-authorizations
• Create a Connect account for the courier and when it's time to pay them, transfer the funds to their connected account and create a Payout (or let Payouts happen automatically): https://stripe.com/docs/connect/bank-debit-card-payouts

The key concept there is that all of the Issuing actions happen on the platform account, and the connected account is just used for paying folks. Essentially, the Cardholder and Connect account are two objects that represent the same person. Hopefully that approach is the simpler and better one for your business, but if you really need to issue cards on the connected accounts directly or if anything's confusing, please let us know.

All the best,

Rob Z

[Rob Zimmerman]

Hi again,

That's definitely possible that your main platform account is set up to use Connect -- especially if your account rep mentioned using it that way. It sounds like you're set that you can use the second account to verify your workflow. If it ends up being that you need your original platform account set up to be able to use that flow, I'd suggest reaching out to your account rep to get it set up properly. Let us know if you run into anything, though!

Rob Z

[S. Arsalan Zaidi]

Hi Rob, 

So we were initially routed to this approach from our account rep at Stripe. But since then, I've definitely been wondering if this is the right approach. 

As of now, we cannot create an individual Cardholder. It says: You can only issue cards for your connected accounts. Please see https://stripe.com/docs/issuing/connect.

Maybe this is because we have initially been setup as a platform? 

Interestingly, just today I sent the email to stripe support to ask if we're using the right approach. Your approach seems so much simpler. 

Just if you could confirm why aren't we able to create a Cardholder at all. 

Thank you so much - i'd Be deeply thankful if you could help us with this. 

Best Regards, 

S. Arsalan

[S. Arsalan Zaidi]

A Quick update over my last message as well. 

I have created a different Stripe account with the settings as you said - and I think I am able to create a new account with the right settings. 

It allows me to create a cardholder now which is great to be honest. I'll try in the morning to send a Physical Card to a delivery person and see where it goes. 

On Wednesday, October 14, 2020 at 9:17:29 PM UTC+5 Rob Zimmerman wrote:

[S. Arsalan Zaidi]

Hi Rob, 

Real quick question again. 

So we have successfully been able to test the APIs for making and authorizing payments. 

Once we make the payment and the order has been closed, however, we can still Issue Balance even though the customer's initial payment has been utilized. 

We also cleared all test data - even then, we are able to send top up balance to be issued. 

How does this part work? How do we access the remaining amount that the company earned? 

Would be again grateful for your response :)

[Rob Zimmerman]

The funds flow in Issuing is a combination of the actions described in these docs:

https://stripe.com/docs/issuing/funding/balance

Once you fund your Issuing balance, those funds need to be used by Issuing cards/cardholders or can be used for a Payout to your external account. They can't be directly sent to your Stripe balance, but you can pay them out and then use them to top up again (using your external account as the middle ground there). Thus if funds hit your Stripe balance from payments, you'll want to only send what you need into your Issuing balance. Anything that's already in your Issuing balance will need to be paid out and then sent back to Stripe.

Rob Z