Question
You would like to pass on your credit card processing fees to your constituents. You want to add the credit card processing fee into the price, if a registrant chooses to use a credit card or PayPal. This is a popular service, sometimes called Fee Recovery.
Answer
Organizations can use the Credit Card Surcharge option found under Tools -> Payment Settings to cover the cost of the transaction fees associated with credit card processing. The Credit Card Surcharge field has 3 settings: Optional, Required, and Do Not Show.
- Optional: Your constituents will decide if they wish to pay the Credit Card Surcharge. You will enter a Surcharge Appeal, which will be presented to your donors. Donors who accept the appeal will pay your payment processing fees. Therefore, the appeal should be presented in a positive manner, ie: I agree to pay payment processing fees associated with the transaction, so that all funds can go to the organization. The default setting is checked/agree to pay and donors will need to uncheck to opt out of payment processing fees. Over 50% of users will pay the optional credit card fees, when presented in this way.
- Required: You will complete the following fields: Credit Card Surcharge Name which will be presented to donors and Credit Card Surcharge Rate. You may select a surcharge rate of 1-15, which corresponds with the percentage donors will be charged. For example, DoJiggy Payments users may charge an additional 3% of the transaction to cover DoJiggy Payments' transaction fees. Enter 3 for a 3% Credit Card Surcharge.
- Do Not Show: Your constituents will not be presented with the option of paying the the Credit Card Surcharge. This is the default setting.
When enabled, the Credit Card Surcharge is a global setting that applies to all orders on your website(s) and appears in the following areas:
- The shopping cart for event registrations, sponsorships and product purchases
If you wish to add a tax or surcharge to all transactions regardless of payment type (ie including checks and cash), please see: How can I add a tax or surcharge to all transactions?