So I'm trying to charge a buyer $100.

Proceeds will go to Seller A and Seller B, 50/50, after Stripe fees my application fees (5%).

I don't want to be the merchant of record, so I have to use a direct charge, not destination charge.

This is very important -- I don't want to be liable for anything, I'm just the guy who facilitated the transaction.

I tried creating a direct charge on behalf of Seller A for $100, while setting my app fee as $5 (i.e. 5%):

stripe.PaymentIntent.create(amount = 10000, currency = 'usd', stripe_account = {{ SELLER_A_ACCOUNT_ID }}, application_fee_amount = 500)

So far so good.

Once the payment was made, I tried to transfer $50 from Seller A's connected account to Seller B's connect account by creating a Transfer object:

stripe.Transfer.create(amount = 5000, currency='usd', destination='{{ SELLER_B_ACCOUNT_ID }}', stripe_account = '{{ SELLER_A_ACCOUNT_ID }}')

Doesn't work!

It gave me error:

stripe.error.InvalidRequestError: Request req_BUamIs2khdEsbf: Cannot create transfers between connected accounts. If you're trying to debit a Connected account then you can learn more here https://stripe.com/docs/connect/account-debits. If you require further assistance, please contact us via https://support.stripe.com/contact.

Fine fine fine.

So I decided to take a larger application fee ($55), and then transfer $50 from my platform account to Seller B (using a webhook listening to the payment_intent.succeeded event), instead of transferring $50 from Seller A to Seller B.

Now it says my account has insufficient funds, even though the application fee of $55 has entered my platform account:

stripe.error.InvalidRequestError: Request req_IYLEYMmcN5E7lF: You have insufficient available funds in your Stripe account. Try adding funds directly to your available balance by creating Charges using the 4000000000000077 test card. See: https://stripe.com/docs/testing#available-balance

What gives?

How do I solve this?