What is Stripe and is it a safe way to send money?

When you give a gift on WellWishes, your money goes through a company called Stripe. You may not have heard the name before. But you have almost certainly used it without knowing. This post explains what Stripe is, how it works and why your money is safe with it.

What is Stripe?

Stripe is a payment company. Its one job is to move money from one person to another in a safe way. When you buy something online, a payment company sits in the middle. It takes your card details, checks them and passes the money on. Stripe is one of the biggest and most trusted of these companies in the world.

Millions of businesses use Stripe to take payments. Large names you know use it and so do small shops. WellWishes uses it so that your gift reaches the couple safely and with no fuss.

How does Stripe work?

Giving a gift feels like one quick step, but a few things happen behind the scenes. You type your card details on the gift page. That page is run by Stripe, not by us. Stripe then checks the card with your bank. If your bank says yes, the money is taken and sent on to the couple. The whole thing takes a few seconds.

• You enter your card details on a secure Stripe page.
• Stripe asks your bank to approve the payment.
• Your bank checks it is really you and approves it.
• The money moves on toward the couple.

We never see or store your full card number. It goes straight to Stripe, which is built from the ground up to keep it safe.

Why is Stripe a safe way to send money?

Keeping money safe is the whole point of a payment company. Stripe has spent years building tools to protect your money and your details. Here are the main reasons you can trust it.

• Your card details are encrypted. That means they are scrambled into code as they travel, so nobody can read them along the way.
• Stripe meets the highest security standard in the payment world (it is called PCI Level 1). This is the same level the big banks work to.
• Stripe watches for fraud. It can spot a payment that looks wrong and stop it before it goes through.
• We never touch your card number. It goes straight to Stripe, so there is one less place it could ever leak.
• Your bank still protects you. You keep the same card protection you always have, just as you would in any other shop.

Why you can feel comfortable giving on WellWishes

Typing your card details into a site you have not used before can feel a little strange. That is fair. But the part that handles your money on WellWishes is not new at all. It is Stripe, the same system you have used to buy things online many times.

• The gift form is powered by Stripe, a company trusted by some of the largest businesses on earth.
• Your card details are kept safe by Stripe and are never stored by us.
• The couple gets your gift and a clear record of it, so they can thank you properly.
• If you ever slip and send the wrong amount, there is a simple, time-boxed way to fix it. See how it works for the full picture.

So when you reach the gift page and see Stripe, you can relax. Your money is in safe hands, the couple gets their gift and you can get back to enjoying the day. To see the whole flow from a guest's side, how it works walks through it step by step.