Customer fees for Collect Checkout

Overview

Collect Checkout now supports customer fees, including surcharges, convenience fees, and miscellaneous fees. This lets merchants pass certain transaction costs to customers directly through a Collect Checkout link. Partners should understand this feature to help merchants set it up correctly and to answer questions about how fees appear to customers at checkout.

What Is Customer Fees in Collect Checkout?

Customer fees are optional charges a merchant can add to a Collect Checkout transaction. There are three types:

• Surcharge: An extra percentage added when a customer pays with a credit card. Surcharges are not applied to debit card payments.
• Convenience fee: An additional fee for the convenience of paying through a specific channel.
• Miscellaneous fee: A flexible fee type merchants can configure for other purposes.

Why It Matters for Partners

• Merchant setup support: Partners may need to walk merchants through enabling customer fees in their settings and applying them to a Collect Checkout button.
• Customer experience impact: Fees change the total a customer sees at checkout, so merchants and their customers need clear expectations.
• No impact on existing links: Merchants do not need to worry about fees appearing unexpectedly on links they already use.
• Compliance considerations: Surcharging is subject to card network rules and, in some cases, state or regional regulations. Partners should confirm with the merchant that surcharging is permitted for their business type and location before enabling it.

Prerequisites / Access Requirements

Before setting up customer fees, the merchant needs:

• Access to their account Settings > Customer Fee Configuration 
• Access to Collect Checkout to create a button

How It Works

Step 1: Configure Customer Fees

1. Log in to the Merchant Portal. 
2. Go to Settings. 
3. Open Customer Fee Configuration. 
4. Set up the fee type(s) the merchant wants to use:
   • Surcharge
   • Convenience fee
   • Miscellaneous fee

For full instructions on setting up fee types and amounts, see Customer Fee Configuration.

Step 2: Create a New Collect Checkout Button

Customer fees only apply to new Collect Checkout buttons. This is important to communicate to merchants.

1. Go to Collect Checkout.
2. Select Button Generator.
3. Add the product or item for sale.
4. Under Options, enable Customer Fee.
5. Once enabled, the configured fee type(s) — surcharge, convenience fee, and/or miscellaneous fee — will display on the button setup.
6. Create the button and copy the checkout link.

Step 3: What the Customer Sees

1. The customer opens the Collect Checkout link and sees the item price and sales tax.
2. The customer enters their contact information.
3. When the customer enters a card number, the system performs a BIN lookup to identify the card type:
   • Credit card: The surcharge will display before the tax line, and the total will reflect the new amount.
   • Debit card: No surcharge is applied, and the total reflects the original price.
4. The customer can switch card numbers before paying if they want to avoid a surcharge (for example, by using a debit card instead of a credit card).
5. The customer completes payment, and the fee (if applied) will appear on the transaction receipt.

Existing Buttons Are Not Affected

Buttons created before this feature was enabled will continue to work exactly as they did before. They will not start charging surcharges, convenience fees, or miscellaneous fees. Merchants must create a new button to use customer fees.

Troubleshooting Guide

 Note: If a merchant reports unexpected fee behavior, confirm which specific button and fee type is involved before escalating to Support.

Common Questions

Will fees apply to Collect Checkout buttons my merchant already has? No. Existing buttons keep working exactly as before. Fees only apply to new buttons where Customer Fees has been enabled.

If a merchant changes a fee percentage, do they need to create a new button? No. Fee amounts are pulled live from the merchant's Customer Fee Configuration settings every time the checkout page loads, so updates apply automatically to existing links with fees enabled. This is different from turning Customer Fees on or off, which can only be set when the button is first created.

Why isn't Apple Pay or Google Pay showing up at checkout? Apple Pay and Google Pay are not available when surcharge is enabled.

Can a customer see the fee amount before entering their card number, or only after? Only after. The surcharge depends on the card type, which the system identifies through a BIN lookup once the customer enters their card number. Before that point, the checkout page shows the price without the surcharge.

Can a merchant edit an existing button to add customer fees? No. The merchant needs to create a new Collect Checkout button and enable Customer Fees during setup, before creating the button.

Key Definitions

• Collect Checkout: A checkout link merchants can create and share to collect payment for a product or service.
• Surcharge: An extra percentage-based fee applied to credit card transactions to offset card processing costs.
• Convenience Fee: A fee charged for the convenience of paying through a particular method or channel.
• Miscellaneous Fee: A flexible, merchant-defined fee type used for purposes outside of surcharge or convenience fees.
• BIN Lookup: A process that identifies card details (such as credit vs. debit) using the card's Bank Identification Number (the first several digits of the card number).

Need Help?

For additional support, please contact our Support team by Submitting a Ticket.