Connecting Stripe for Online Payments

Connecting Stripe for Online Payments

Stripe is how TrailerBase moves money from your renters into your bank account. Once you connect it, every invoice, quote, and deposit hold flows through the same rails — no extra setup per document.

Where to start

Go to Settings > Merchant Account > Connect. You will see a big Connect Stripe button with a short checklist of what you will need. Click it.

The Stripe Connect flow

Clicking Connect sends you to Stripe's hosted onboarding on stripe.com. You fill out the form on Stripe's side, not ours, so your sensitive details never touch our servers.

Have these ready before you start:

• Business type — sole proprietor, LLC, corporation, or non-profit.
• EIN or SSN — required by US banking law to verify the account holder.
• Legal address and date of birth — for the person listed as the account representative.
• Bank account — routing and account number for the deposits. Stripe supports ACH verification through Plaid or micro-deposits.
• Website or social media URL — your TrailerBase-hosted site works perfectly here.

Stripe usually verifies instantly. If something needs a manual review, you will see a yellow banner on your dashboard telling you exactly what is missing. When you finish, Stripe redirects you back to TrailerBase and your merchant settings update automatically.

Test mode vs live mode

Before you go live you can experiment in test mode. In test mode your invoices and quotes still behave normally, but the card numbers only accept Stripe's test cards (such as 4242 4242 4242 4242). No real money moves. This is the safest way to walk through a full reservation end-to-end with a teammate.

Flip the toggle in Settings > Merchant Account to move to live. Your test data stays separate so it will not mix into reports.

Fees and pricing

You pay standard Stripe processing on each successful card charge:

• 2.9% + 30 cents per card transaction (Stripe's fee).
• 0% platform fee from TrailerBase. We do not take a cut of your rental revenue.

Disputes and refunds follow Stripe's normal rules, which we mirror on the invoice detail page so you can track everything in one place.

Payouts to your bank

Once a charge clears, Stripe holds the funds briefly and then deposits them to your linked bank account on a rolling basis — typically 2 business days after the charge. Your first payout can take a little longer (around 7 days) while Stripe confirms your account.

You can watch pending payouts on the Merchant Account page, and tap through to the Stripe dashboard for a full ledger.

Common gotchas

• Mismatched legal name. The name on your Stripe account must match what the IRS has on file for that EIN.
• Personal bank account under a business EIN. Stripe will ask you to switch to the business's checking account.
• International accounts. TrailerBase supports US-based Stripe accounts today. Reach out if you operate outside the US.

When your account shows a green Connected status, you are ready to charge your first reservation.