You owe Stripe money

Your Stripe balance goes below zero when a payment is disputed or a tip is refunded after it reached your bank, and new tips clear it before payouts restart.

If Overview shows You owe Stripe money instead of Next payout, your Stripe balance has gone below zero. The screen tells you how much, why, what happens to new tips, and when it ends.

Why it happens

This happens when a payment is disputed, or when a tip is refunded after it has already reached your bank.

A disputed payment is taken back straight away, and Stripe charges a £20 fee on top, whichever way it is decided. That is the surprising part. A £5 tip that is disputed can cost far more than £5.

What happens to your tips now

New tips go towards clearing the amount first. If more money is still on its way in, a line says how much, and that goes towards it too. Once the amount has been covered, payouts start again on their own.

Payouts run every Friday. They will resume on the first Friday after the balance is cleared.

If it is not cleared

If it is not cleared, Stripe may take the difference from your bank account.

See which tips

1. On Overview, press See which tips.
2. In All tips, look for tips marked Disputed, Dispute lost, Dispute won or Refunded.
3. At the foot, open Disputes and bank queries. If somebody has asked their bank to reverse a tip, it turns up there and you answer it there.

You will see: a list of tips, with the disputed ones flagged, and a deadline to reply on any open dispute.

There is a deadline to reply, so open it as soon as you hear about one.

Keeping out of it

• A bank query is not yet a dispute. Nothing has been taken and there is no fee. Refunding it settles the query and costs you only the tip. See Refunding a tip.
• A tip that is already disputed cannot be refunded. Stripe has already taken the money back and returns it to you if the dispute goes your way.