Patreon acknowledged today that it has resolved the underlying issue causing widespread payment rejections this week, observed by both creators and patrons. The funding platform, speaking to BuyTechBlog, confirmed that financial institutions have identified an unusually large number of patron payments as suspicious. Moreover, certain creators have reported problems accessing their funds, a situation that Patreon claims is unrelated and is due to an update from a partner.
The problem of fund accessibility has been limited to “creators using a single payment partner”, identified as Payoneer on the system status page of the company. The firm maintains that it is actively collaborating with Payoneer to reinstate payouts, and anticipates that the transactions will be restored by today.
The issue came to light after numerous Patreon users expressed their loss of supporters on social media platforms. It was observed that Patreon’s billing information had seemingly moved to Dublin, leading some users to theorize that this change was the reason for the banks’ marking of the transactions as dubious. Dr. Brooke Magnanti, author of Secret Diary of a London Call Girl, mentioned on Bluesky today that she had lost 80% of her patrons. “Awesome”, she remarked sarcastically.
In a similar vein, Reddit user u/Competitive_Fruit901 reported losing 300 patrons on Wednesday. User u/Koratl added, “Billing has been more chaotic than usual this month. Many people’s cards marked Patreon as fraudulent.” Another Redditor, u/arzen353, contributed, “Moreover, there’s no option to reattempt payment once you authorize it with your bank. People can’t resubscribe even if they want to. It seems we just have to wait for Patreon to sort itself out.”
In response to queries about the Dublin billing location, Patreon suggested to BuyTechBlog that it’s likely due to a recent update. “We implemented a mandatory upgrade with one of our payment processing partners,” company spokesperson Ellen Satterwhite communicated via email. “This might have modified the descriptors that people are familiar with on their statements. We are actively working with this payment processing partner to resolve the matter.” The company also reassured that the issue of flagged payments should not persist. “Typically, when payments are declined for various reasons, and payments are retried, the patron relationships are reestablished,” the company explained to BuyTechBlog.
Patreon refrained from speculating on the timeline or specific measures for flagged transactions until a comprehensive solution is implemented. However, it anticipates addressing the payout issue by today.
This article will be updated with any further details as they come in. For additional updates, you can check Patreon’s status blog and its X (previously known as Twitter) support account.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Patreon Payment Issues
What issue is Patreon currently facing?
Patreon is dealing with an issue that resulted in widespread rejected payments and inaccessible funds for creators. Financial institutions flagged an unusually high number of patron payments as fraudulent.
Who is the payment partner that’s been affected?
The payment partner affected by the inability to access payouts is identified as Payoneer.
What is the speculated reason for banks flagging transactions as fraudulent?
The speculated reason is a recent shift in Patreon’s billing information to Dublin, which some users believe may be why banks are flagging the transactions as fraudulent.
How is Patreon addressing these issues?
Patreon is working actively with its payment partner Payoneer to resolve the payout issue and is closely collaborating with its payment processing partner to address the problem of flagged transactions.
Are these issues expected to persist long-term?
According to Patreon, these issues are not expected to be long-term. Once the payments are retried following the declines, they anticipate that the patron relationships will be restored.
More about Patreon Payment Issues
- Patreon Official Website
- Patreon’s Status Blog
- Patreon’s Support Account on X
- Original Article on BuyTechBlog
5 comments
Wait, what?? I just checked and lost some patrons too. this sucks 🙁
this sounds like a massive fail on Patreon’s part. hope they fix this soon for the creators sake…
oh man, not good! losing patrons is bad enough, not being able to access funds is even worse.
this is crazy! i lost half my patrons coz of this. Patreon needs to sort this out ASAP!
honestly, it’s pretty alarming how quickly things can go wrong. Patreon, get your act together!