Emergency follow-up: Why I can't use Substack "pledges"

It's complicated, because, Italy.

Hi to all the kind people clicking on the “pledges” built in to the Substack website.

Thanks from the bottom of my soles for this. 

I’m afraid, however, that the Substack built-in pledge thing won't work for me. I can't (yet) monetise the blog directly. It's complicated, and has to do with arcane complications with Italian bureaucracy, and being an ex-pat.

I have PayPal, but Substack doesn't use Paypal, only Stripe. But Stripe can't give me an account attached to my Canadian bank account - the only one I have right now - because my residential address is now in Italy. This isn’t a problem for the Toronto Dominion bank, but I can’t attach any other/new online payment system to it - like Stripe - because I no longer have a Canadian address.

But I also can't open an Italian bank account because - you won't believe this but it's true - the immigration official in the police office in Terni spelled my name incorrectly on a form. This has halted my application for an Italian ID card with my current address (though I am here perfectly legally) without which I can't open an Italian bank account. I have to take up arms again with the local Commune of Narni to start the process all over again, which generally takes a year.

Until that time, I can't redeem anything attached directly to Substack like the Pledges system they have. 

All of the above is why I have linked only to the Ko-fi page, which is attached to my Paypal which feeds to my Canadian bank account. (All of which costs me the bloody earth in transaction fees, but oh well…)

So, with regrets, any kind pledges made through the Substack system will have to be cancelled. Right now the only way I can receive donations and recurring payments is through PayPal, which can be accessed through my studio blog:

Thanks for your kind assistance and patience.

HJMWhite.