Ryft is a new way to receive your tips on SPONSA, rolling out gradually alongside PayPal. This guide explains how Ryft works, who can use it right now, and the key differences to PayPal.

Ryft is a payment processor SPONSA has partnered with, available alongside PayPal. When you're set up with Ryft:

Why creators might choose Ryft:

Ryft is rolling out gradually. Access is currently invite-only for volunteers in our Closed Discord.

If you'd like early access:

We'll open Ryft up to more creators as the rollout continues.

Ryft works differently from PayPal in two important ways: there's a minimum payout threshold, and there's a short settlement wait before funds reach you. Here's a side-by-side:

With Ryft, your tips build up in your balance until they reach £20 / $20 / €20 (depending on your payout currency). By default, Ryft checks your balance once a day and sends a payout automatically as soon as you're at or above the threshold. Prefer to control when you get paid? You can switch to manual payouts in your Ryft dashboard and trigger them yourself.

If you haven't reached the threshold yet, your balance simply carries over and keeps building - nothing is lost.

This is different from PayPal, where every tip lands in your balance straight away with no minimum.

Card payments through Ryft settle on a T+5 basis - funds from a tip become available 5 days after the day the tip was made (T = the transaction day). Those 5 days include weekends, but payouts themselves only go out on business days - so if the fifth day lands on a weekend or holiday, your payout follows on the next business day.

This short wait is normal for card payments: it covers the settlement and fraud-protection window that card networks require.

Putting both together, a tip needs to (1) settle over the T+5 business-day window, and (2) take your balance to the threshold. Ryft automatically checks daily, and once your settled balance is at or above £20 / $20 / €20, your payout reaches your bank the same business day.

When you first start with Ryft, expect your first payout to take a little longer than PayPal's near-instant transfers. Once you're regularly above the threshold, payouts settle into a steady daily rhythm.

The £20 threshold and T+5 settlement aren't permanent. As SPONSA builds up processing history, we're working with Ryft to lower the threshold and shorten settlement times - so expect these to improve over time.

Just like PayPal, supporters never see your personal details when they pay through Ryft. On their card or bank statement they'll see a SPONSA reference rather than your name or personal information - for example, something like RP*SPONSA LTD-SPONSA L (the exact wording can vary slightly from bank to bank).

Once you've been given access, connecting Ryft only takes a few minutes. You'll start on SPONSA and finish on Ryft's secure onboarding.

That's it - you're ready to receive tips through Ryft!

Like PayPal, two fees come out of each tip, and both are worked out from the full tip amount:

Example: on a £10 tip:

That's more than you'd keep with PayPal, where the same £10 tip nets around £8.90 after PayPal's 2.9% + £0.30. The gap grows on smaller tips, since Ryft's 10p fixed fee is lower than PayPal's 30p. Ryft's card rate also stays flat for international cards (no surcharge like PayPal's), and if a tip needs currency conversion, Ryft's 1% fee is well below PayPal's around 3%.

Yes! You can run Ryft and PayPal at the same time. When both are enabled, your supporters choose at checkout how they'd like to pay: via PayPal, or via Ryft (card, Apple Pay, or Google Pay).

"I haven't received a payout yet"

"My balance isn't going up after a tip"

"How long does a payout take once I've hit the threshold?"

On automatic payouts, once your settled balance is at or above the threshold, your money goes out on the next business day. On manual payouts, it's sent once you trigger it (also on a business day).

If you have questions about Ryft or your payouts: