- Overview
- Prerequisites
- Customer Fee Configuration
- How to create a Convenience Fee, Surcharge Fee or Miscellaneous Fee
- What does it look like in the Virtual Terminal?
- Transaction Detail
- Frequently Asked Questions
Overview
Merchants can add a Surcharge, Convenience Fee, Miscellaneous Fee to their transactions in the Merchant Portal under Customer Fee Configuration on the Settings page. Merchants need to adhere to the rules and regulations from card brands or laws from state and local governments on how much can be surcharged to ensure compliance. Please have your merchants contact their merchant account representative and consult legal statutes to ensure compliance. Changes made in the Customer Fee Configuration Settings page will only affect transactions in the Virtual Terminal.
Prerequisites
Partners can remove the Advanced Merchant Features:
- Allow Merchant to configure Surcharge and Convenience Fees
- Allow Merchant to configure Miscellaneous Fees
Note - If the flags are not enabled, as a partner you will still be able to configure these fees on behalf of your merchant. This will allow you to make changes and not the merchant. The flags only need to be enabled if you want to allow the merchant to make changes.
The merchant user will need the 'Access Administrative Options' permission to see the Transaction Options heading, where the Customer Fee Configuration page is located. Primary users have this permission set by default and cannot be removed.
Navigating to Customer Fee Configuration
In the Merchant Portal, on the left side panel → click on Options → Settings → under Transaction Options click on Customer Fee Configuration or from the homepage My Settings → All Settings → under Transaction Options click on Customer Fee Configuration.
Customer Fee Configuration
Before your merchant enables Customer Fee Configuration on their Virtual Terminal, it is imperative that the merchant contacts their processing service to ensure compliance. Card brands and merchants acquirers/processors can provide more information, such as state level restrictions as some currently prohibit/limit surcharging, whether they require any notices from the merchant prior to adding surcharging, advise how much the merchant can surcharge, etc.
Surcharging is available via the Payment API, Quickclick, and other services. To add a surcharge to any other service, please ask a support agent for instructions at support@nmi.com.
How to Create a Convenience Fee, Surcharge Fee or Miscellaneous Fee
The Surcharge and Convenience fee is split into two separate fees and a NEW Miscellaneous Fee has been added. The Merchant can set up Surcharge OR Convenience Fee, not both. A Miscellaneous Fee can be added independently of the Surcharge or Convenience Fee setup.
- Surcharge Fee (can be applied to Credit Sales only, it will be hidden and not charged on debit card transactions)
- Convenience Fee (can be applied to Virtual Terminal CC, ACH and Cash Sales)
- Miscellaneous Fee (can be applied to Virtual Terminal CC, ACH and Cash Sales)
The merchant can use the toggle switches to enable or disable fee settings. To enable the feature switch the toggle to the right.
Surcharge Fee
The merchant can activate this fee to be applied to credit sale transactions where a credit or charge card is being used. There is a max fee amount of 3%. Surcharging will be hidden and not charged on debit card transactions.
Convenience Fee
The merchant can activate this fee to be applied to CC, ACH or Cash transactions. There is no max limit.
Miscellaneous Fee
The merchant can activate this fee to be applied to CC, ACH or Cash transactions. They can also rename the fee to match their business needs. There is no max limit.
What does it look like in the Virtual Terminal?
Credit Sales
ACH/Cash Sales
When the merchant enters an Amount, the gateway will auto-calculate the fee amount. The Total will equal the Amount + Fee.
Fee settings cannot be edited during a transaction in the Virtual Terminal other than toggling it on or off.
Transaction Detail
The merchant can see the Fee amounts under the “Additional Information” section of the Transaction Details. The below example shows a Surcharge and a Miscellaneous Fee (Registration Fee).
Frequently Asked Questions
As a partner, can I remove any of these options from the configuration page of my merchant? Yes, there are two separate flags in the 'Advanced Merchant Features' section that you can un-check and save. This will remove the option from the merchant portal.
Why is my merchant still seeing the old "Convenience Fee/Surcharging" settings page? If your merchant already had Convenience Fee/Surcharging activated on their account prior to the new settings page, they will need to disable the old settings in order to be able to activate/see the new Customer Fee Configuration page.