If your payment was declined...

Last month, Patreon switched some of their creators (like me) to a UK-based company to process payments. That made some of your banks flag your Patreon transactions as fraudulent, and a few of you had to contact your banks and confirm that the charges were, indeed, legit.

Special thanks to the patron who reportedly informed their bank that not only was said transaction legit, but it was, indeed, too legit to quit.

This was an effort, by Patreon, to continue to support creators, like me, whose work is considered NSFW — adult content. Some payment processors dislike adult content (for reasons I will address in a moment).

I realize it can be frustrating — especially if this is the second time your bank has flagged your pledge as fraudulent. But it's going to be OK. This problem — just like all of the other little bumps in the road we've experienced — will smooth out soon.

If your payment didn't go through...

1. If your bank suspects that the Patreon payment is fraudulent, you can call up your bank to confirm the payment is genuine. Easy peasy.
2. If your payment failed, you can follow these steps or switch to a different payment method.
3. If you are seeing an international processing fee, you can switch your pledge to a different bank that doesn’t charge for international payments.
4. You can reach out to the Patreon support team to get account specific help.

Here’s what Patreon will be doing:

1. They’ll reach out via email to any patron who receives a “declined” payment with info on what they can do and how.
2. They will continue Patreon’s proactive practice of retrying payments
   throughout the month.

For a full recap of what Patreon has been up to with payment processors, read a blog post from Tyler, Patreon's VP of Operations.

Why do banks dislike adult content?

In some cases, this can be an effort to appease the bank's board members who ascribe to a philosophy that sexual content is inherently bad. This country seems to be infinitely more comfortable with violent content than sexual content.

And the other reason is economic. Companies that offer adult content tend to have a rather large chargeback rate. Besides outright fraud, the following happens quite a bit: 

Spouse A: (looking over the family credit-card statement) What's this charge for Boobs-Ahoy.com?!

Spouse B: (sweating profusely under their sailor's cap) Um... that wasn't me! Someone must have stolen my credit-card number!

Spouse A: Well, you'd better call the bank and cancel that charge!

Spouse B: Aye-Aye!

Then, Spouse B runs to the phone and lies about their transaction with Boobs-Ahoy.com in a desperate attempt to avoid talking about sex with their, ahem... first mate. The bank always sides with their customer and requests that the bank representing Boobs Ahoy return the funds! The Boobs Ahoy bank has to deal with this bullshit every freaking month, so they levy higher charges and transaction fees on the company — and every company like it (such as the sadly underrated AvastMeHeartyBoobs.com).

So what?

So, when crowdfunding companies like Ko-Fi run up against this kind of thing, they say — screw it, it's easier to simply ban adult content. But Patreon hasn't done that. They've had to tighten up some of their rules — no more suggestive images in public posts, for example — in order to walk a very fine line with their payment processors. But they've literally bent over backwards so I can draw naked supervillains. You gotta love that.

It added some bumps in the road at the beginning of August, and a small percentage of you have experienced a hiccup this month.

Take a breath and give the folks at Patreon a break. Any sane company would have gotten rid of creators like me a long time ago.

As always, I stand ready to assist and answer any questions every step of the way. Thank you for being a backer, and let's get ready for another fantastic month on Patreon!