A UAE prop trading firm had done what most in the category can't: it got accepted by Stripe, and payments went through. It was also paying a premium for the name. Stripe in the UAE charges international cards one blended rate plus an international-card fee, and pays out in dirhams, so every dollar, euro and pound payment was converted, at 1%, before it reached them. And the account could be reviewed and closed at any time.
What the name was costing
- A 1% conversion fee on every payment, because Stripe in the UAE pays out in dirhams
- One blended price for every card: a European debit card cost the same as a US business credit card
- An extra fee on every international card, on top of the blended rate
- A fixed fee per payment, plus VAT on the fees
- And none of it lowered the risk: the account could still be closed after a review
What we did
We onboarded them to an EU acquirer that works with prop firms. Before moving their volume, we rebuilt a full month of their card payments transaction by transaction: where each card was issued, debit or credit, consumer or business, the currency, and the declined attempts, which carry fees too. We matched every line of the acquirer's statement against the payment export, so the comparison ran on real rates.
Two changes did the work
Same-currency processing and payouts. The acquirer pays out dollars in dollars, euros in euros and pounds in pounds, so nothing is converted and the 1% fee is gone.
IC++ instead of a blended rate. Each payment carries its own card's interchange and scheme fees, plus the acquirer's markup, instead of one price set to cover the most expensive card. Through an EU acquirer, European cards come with EU-capped interchange and no cross-border fee, and UK cards with only a reduced one. A large share of their payments were on those cards, and most were debit, so their effective rate came down.
No new integration: the acquirer went into the cascade they already had, first in line, with Stripe kept as the fallback.
Before and after
Currency conversion
1% on every paymenttoNone
Pricing
Blended ratetoIC++
First processor
StripetoEU acquirer
What's running today
The EU acquirer processes first, and Stripe catches what it declines, so every payment still gets a second chance. Payouts arrive in the currency the customer paid in, and every statement line shows what each card cost. If Stripe ever closes the account, payments keep flowing, because the first processor isn't Stripe anymore.
"We thought we were lucky having the biggest name, but in fact it cost us tens of thousands a month."