BuyMeACoffee silently dropped support for many countries (2024)

BuyMeACoffee’s change and silent rollout

• Main frustration is not just dropping support but doing it quietly: no clear advance notice, no migration path, and creators discovering only when payouts fail.
• Some see funds that can’t be withdrawn or refunded as “effectively stolen,” even if they remain on platform balances.
• Others argue it’s a private business choice driven by cost, features, and legal risk, but agree the communication and offboarding (announcements, timelines, explicit withdrawal instructions) should have been much better.

Payment processors, compliance, and country risk

• Explanation offered: BMaC dropped Wise/Payoneer and relies on Stripe, which never supported Ukraine, so Ukraine is collateral damage rather than an explicit geo-blocking policy.
• Industry insiders describe fintechs as compliance‑first: KYC/AML, sanctions lists, and fraud risk drive decisions, often leading to blanket bans for war zones or “high‑risk” countries.
• Serving small, high‑risk markets with lots of chargebacks or fraud can be uneconomical when a single fraudulent transaction wipes out the margin from many legit ones.

Trust in fintech vs banks

• Multiple accounts of Revolut/Wise issues: frozen or inaccessible accounts, broken document-upload flows, very slow closure/refunds, and weak customer support.
• Debate over how protected fintech balances really are (FSCS/ECB limits vs “not a real bank” e‑money setups). Advice trends toward not holding large sums and diversifying across institutions.
• One commenter from fintech describes poor internal security, broad employee access, manual operations behind “AI/automation” marketing, and weak auditing.

Crypto and stablecoins as workarounds

• Some argue stablecoins/crypto are the obvious fix for creators in blocked countries; also useful as “last resort” if bank accounts are frozen.
• Counterpoints: on/off ramps are regulated and sanctionable; UX is too complex for many donors; risks (volatility, scams, association with crime) and KYC overhead remain high.
• Discussion widens into fungibility, privacy coins (e.g., Monero), tracking, and the reality that regulators can still choke exchanges and payment gateways.

Financial system as enforcement infrastructure

• Several comments note that payments rails have been normalized as law‑enforcement tools: firms avoid any user that looks even slightly risky to dodge huge AML/sanctions penalties.
• This extends to sex workers, some legal cannabis businesses, and entire countries; “debanking” and over‑compliance are viewed as structural, not just individual‑company failings.