I’ve read all I can about the two payment methods. However, I am struggling to find compelling reasons to let itch collect payments on my behalf.

I’m also concerned that I cannot find reasonable justification for the two delays itch imposes on payouts: 1) 7 days before payout button appears, and 2) (even larger delays) reviewing payouts.

Collected by itch.io, paid later

Pros

• allows co-op bundles
• takes care of tax
• simplify payments between multiple creators (by letting Payoneer take care of it)

Cons

• 7 day wait for payout button
• 10 to 75+ days wait for payout to complete
• Tax treaty interview
• Tax withholding discrepancies
• Payoneer fee
• Tax identity fee (one-off)

Direct to you

Pros

• Money paid instantly via PayPal/Stripe

Cons

• Tax done separately
• Currency conversion done at payment processor

In terms of fees it’s pretty equal. Fees for transaction and currency conversion are taken at some point in both methods. Tax is arguably easier with itch, but there is a big barrier to entry with the tax interview and the following confusion when tax withholding percentage is incorrectly displayed.

I found an old thread that described multiple reasons for payouts being in review for long, unexpected amounts of time. TL;DR initially it says the delay is for fraud prevention, and then changes to say that the delay is to allow for refunds; neither very convincing).

To offer alternatives for both of those:

• Fraud prevention can be handled by Payoneer, as detailed here: https://www.payoneer.com/about/security-center/
• Refunds could be subtracted from the next payout, or from any connected account (eg. PayPal)

The cynic in me can come up with many financial reasons that itch might want to hold on to this money for as long as possible, but I’m hoping those thoughts are unfounded.

The phrasing on the itch page contrasting these two payment methods seems very biased towards itch, and makes it sound like going with “Direct to you” is a complicated process fraught with danger, which is a bit of FUD as it actually just takes a few clicks (one to choose it, and one each for PayPal/Stripe)

So, my questions:

• what on earth is going on here?
• are there plans to speed up payouts and remove payout reviews?
• am i missing something obvious?

Hey there,

I’ve read all I can about the two payment methods. However, I am struggling to find compelling reasons to let itch collect payments on my behalf.

I think the reasons you mentioned in your spots are pretty spot on, and displays correctly why someone would choose either option.

Tax is arguably easier with itch, but there is a big barrier to entry with the tax interview and the following confusion when tax withholding percentage is incorrectly displayed.

I would say this is a pretty big reason for why someone would let Itch.io to collect payments on their behalf. This is a place that welcomes users with any type of knowledge. A lot of indies just want to focus on making games, which is already a very difficult process, and want everything else taken care for them.

If a user has the resources required to do taxes manually, that’s exactly why the option “Direct to you” is available to them. At the end of the day, giving choice to users is a good thing.

TL;DR initially it says the delay is for fraud prevention, and then changes to say that the delay is to allow for refunds; neither very convincing).

Just to clear things up a little, once a payment is made, it will be held by Itch.io for 7 days, in case of a refund. After than, you can request a payout of that payment, and then it will go into review by the admins, which is where the fraud prevention review takes place. I have no visibility on how that review is handled behind the scenes, but I believe every payout is being approved manually by a person.

The phrasing on the itch page contrasting these two payment methods seems very biased towards itch, and makes it sound like going with “Direct to you” is a complicated process fraught with danger, which is a bit of FUD as it actually just takes a few clicks (one to choose it, and one each for PayPal/Stripe)

From personal experience, I would say the “Direct to you” adds extra responsibilities to the developers, so it definitely is something that users need to be aware of. Also not entirely sure what you mean by biased on Itch.io, I find the table on the link you mentioned to be quite pedantic on who does what on each payment option.

At the end of the day, if you look at the bigger picture, getting your money 10 days earlier will not change much. There’s definitely users trying to take advantage of how open this platform is, and that’s why there’s so many checks in place.

Hope that answers at least some of your questions :)

Just to clear things up a little, once a payment is made, it will be held by Itch.io for 7 days, in case of a refund. After than, you can request a payout of that payment, and then it will go into review by the admins, which is where the fraud prevention review takes place. I have no visibility on how that review is handled behind the scenes, but I believe every payout is being approved manually by a person.

Yes, that’s the official line of how and what. But I would argue that both of those steps can be avoided, as I mentioned in the OP (refund by subtracting from future payouts, fraud seems to be duplicated by Payoneer?)

I’d like to know if itch has any plans to streamline the payout process.

Also not entirely sure what you mean by biased on Itch.io

Exactly what I mentioned in the OP:

it makes it sound like going with “Direct to you” is a complicated process fraught with danger, which is a bit of FUD as it actually just takes a few clicks (one to choose it, and one each for PayPal/Stripe)