How Payments Work

Meetup Art lets organisers sell event tickets and artists sell artwork to buyers anywhere in the world. To do that safely we route money through established, regulated payment platforms — never holding card details ourselves. This page explains, in plain English, how money flows in (pay-ins, when a buyer pays you) and out (payouts, when we send your earnings to your bank), and what each platform costs for UK, EU and international users.

Two separate fee layers

It helps to think of two distinct costs that sit on top of every sale:

1. The Meetup Art platform fee — our cut for running the marketplace. This is tier-based (see the table below) and is the only fee that is deducted from your payout.
2. The payment-processor fee — what Stripe, Mollie, PayPal or Apple charge to move the money. Meetup Art absorbs these processing costs out of its own platform fee.Your payout is simply the sale price minus the Meetup Art platform fee shown below — the processor's cut is not deducted from you again.

We still publish the processor fees here so you can see the full economics of the platform and understand why money is routed the way it is.

The Meetup Art platform fee

The platform fee depends on your subscription tier and what you are selling. Paid tiers pay no fee at all on event tickets and a progressively smaller cut on artwork sales.

See full tier pricing on the pricing page. Upgrading to a paid tier removes ticket fees entirely and lowers your artwork cut — often paying for itself after a handful of sales.

Pay-ins — how buyers pay you

When someone buys a ticket or an artwork, the checkout they see is chosen automatically based on their country, so they get the cheapest, most familiar local payment method. You don't need to configure anything.

EU buyers are routed to Mollie because local methods such as iDEAL and SEPA Direct Debit are markedly cheaper than card processing. Everyone else pays by card through Stripe.

Payouts — how you get paid

Your earnings are paid out to your country using whichever platform can reach your bank most cheaply. You onboard once with the relevant provider (a quick identity / bank-details step) and we handle the rest.

• When you're paid: ticket earnings become eligible 3 days after the event ends (7 days for multi-session courses), giving a buffer for cancellations and refunds before money leaves the platform.
• Batched, not per-sale:payouts are grouped into batches rather than sent one sale at a time. This keeps per-transaction payout fees down, which is part of how we're able to absorb processing costs.
• Some currencies are restricted: payouts in Brazilian Real (BRL), Argentine Peso (ARS) and Malaysian Ringgit (MYR) cannot currently be sent via PayPal. If you're affected, contact us and we'll arrange an alternative.

The payment platforms, their options & fees

Stripe (UK & international cards, subscriptions, payouts)

Stripe handles all web subscriptions, UK and international card pay-ins, and payouts to the UK, US, Canada, Switzerland and the EEA via Stripe Connect Express accounts. Express means Stripe hosts the onboarding and identity checks — you fill in a short form and Stripe verifies you directly.

• UK & EEA cards (indicative): ~1.5% + 20p (standard UK consumer cards); EEA cards similar; premium / commercial cards higher.
• International cards (indicative): ~3.25% + 20p, plus ~2% if currency conversion is required.
• Config implications: Express accounts carry no monthly fee; cross-border self-serve payouts reach the UK, US, EEA, Canada and Switzerland only — which is exactly why Asia and Latin America are routed to PayPal instead.

Official fees: stripe.com/gb/pricing · Connect (payout) pricing

Mollie (EU pay-ins & payouts)

Mollie powers EU pay-ins through cheap local methods and EU payouts via Mollie Connect. Fees in the EU are typically a flat per-transaction amount rather than a percentage, which is far cheaper on lower-value sales.

• iDEAL (indicative): a flat fee of roughly €0.29 per transaction — no percentage.
• SEPA Direct Debit (indicative): ~€0.25 flat per transaction.
• Cards (indicative): ~1.8% + €0.25 for EEA consumer cards; non-EEA cards higher.
• Config implications: you enable the methods your EU buyers prefer; flat-fee methods like iDEAL/SEPA win on price, which is why EU checkout defaults to them over cards.

Official fees: mollie.com/pricing

PayPal (Asia & Latin America payouts)

PayPal covers payouts to regions Stripe Connect can't reach. You only need a valid PayPal account email; payouts land in your PayPal balance, from where you withdraw to your local bank.

• Payouts (indicative): ~2% of the payout amount, capped per transaction (the cap varies by currency); cross-border and currency conversion may add a margin.
• Config implications: some payouts settle asynchronously — an item can show as unclaimed until you accept it, or be returned if the email has no PayPal account. BRL, ARS and MYR are not supported for PayPal payouts (see above).

Official fees: PayPal merchant fees · PayPal Payouts

Apple In-App Purchase (iOS subscriptions only)

Apple's App Store rules require that subscriptions bought inside the iOS app go through Apple In-App Purchase — we can't use Stripe there. The same subscription bought via the website uses Stripe at lower cost.

• Commission (indicative):Apple takes 30% in year one, dropping to 15% for subscribers retained beyond a year; small businesses may qualify for 15% under Apple's Small Business Program.
• Tip:subscribing via the website avoids Apple's commission entirely.

Official terms: developer.apple.com/app-store

Currency & conversion

Buyers are charged in their local currency where supported, and payouts are made in your account currency. When a sale and a payout span different currencies, the relevant platform applies a foreign-exchange conversion (typically around a 2% margin — see the linked fee pages). Pricing for subscriptions is shown in GBP, EUR and USD.

Security, refunds & disputes

• We never store card details. Card data goes directly to the PCI-compliant payment platform; Meetup Art only ever sees a reference to the transaction.
• Money only moves on confirmation. Earnings and tier upgrades are only recorded once the payment platform confirms the payment via a verified webhook — never just because a checkout page redirected.
• Refunds & chargebacksare returned to the buyer's original payment method through the same platform that took the payment. For the full rules, see our Refund & Cancellation Policy.

Questions?

If anything about pay-ins, payouts or fees is unclear, or you need help onboarding for payouts in your country, email us at hello@meetup.art and we'll be glad to help.