On this page
Marketplaces describe themselves as “just a platform”. Stripe Connect still has to put the card payment somewhere. Direct charges sit on the connected account. Destination charges sit on the platform and send funds onward. Separate charges and transfers split the act of charging from the act of paying the seller. The labels matter because refunds, disputes and reserves follow the charge.
Read who is on the charge before you promise who will fight the dispute.
What is actually moving
This note will not pretend one of those is always safer. The safe question is narrower: whose name is on the statement, whose balance goes negative, and who holds the evidence. If the platform promised sellers it would “cover disputes” but the charge sits on the seller, the promise and the payment disagree.
- Direct: the seller’s account takes the charge.
- Destination: the platform takes it and routes funds.
- Separate: charge and transfer are different steps.
- The dispute follows the charge.
What people confuse it with
Moving sellers onto a personal Stripe because the platform’s charge type feels inconvenient is not a fourth charge type. It is account sharing.
Not a reinstatement method
What to do with it
Name the charge type you actually use, in the dashboard’s words.
- Find one real charge and see which account it belongs to.
- See where the dispute would be filed.
- See who can refund it.
- If you cannot answer, you are not ready to offer a revenue share.
What this briefing is not
Questions on this note
Which Connect charge type should we use?
This site will not pick one. The right one is the one that makes the seller, the statement and the dispute owner true. Guessing for a lower fee is how the file breaks.
Does the platform automatically cover seller disputes?
Only if the charge, the contract and the platform settings say so. A sales line does not move a dispute.
Continue in the briefing
Platforms
Stripe Connected Accounts: Standard, Express, Custom, and Whose Name Is on the Charge
How Stripe Connect splits a platform from a connected account, what Standard, Express and Custom change, and why a platform invite is not a blank permission.
12 min
Platforms
Stripe Connect: When the Platform Is Restricted and the Connected Account Is Not
Platform pauses, connected-account pauses, and whose name is on the charge. What a marketplace freeze does and does not do to sellers.
16 min
Platforms
Who the Dispute Lands on in a Marketplace
The cardholder disputes a merchant. In a marketplace that merchant might be the platform or the seller. The contract does not change the charge.
11 min
Terms
Why Sharing or Borrowing a Stripe Account Is Not a Remedy for a Freeze
Why using someone else’s Stripe account after a freeze or block breaks the rules, puts both businesses at risk, and is not what a payment partnership is.
12 min