Use Case: Set Up a Convenience Fee

Owned by Miles Graves
Last updated: Dec 24, 2024 by Ada Li
5 min read

Your merchants can charge their customers a convenience fee for accepting non-primary payment methods. You can set up convenience fees for either an individual Merchant account or a group of Merchants. This tutorial walks you through the steps to create a convenience fee.

Screenshot 2024-01-09 160812 uc fee 1.png
Partial view of the Fees tab.

Objective

Create a new fee that triggers when one of your Merchants charges a cardholder using an alternative payment method.

Audience

  • Facilitators

  • Referrers

Environment

  • Portal (Sandbox)

  • Portal (Production)

Prerequisites

Prerequisites:

  • You must have a fully boarded Payrix account to perform any of the actions described in the use case guides.

  • Make sure you’re familiar with the following terms and information:

    • Fee Types: The different categories of fees that can be created and charged

    • Fee Structure: Overview of the basic layout for a fee configuration

      • Fee Schedules: Available time-based or event-based triggers used to initiate a fee charge

      • Fee Rules: Options to further refine the criteria of the fee schedule

      • Fee Modifiers: Options to redirect the fee collection flow and who will pay the fee

      • Fee Collection Process: Overview of how fee payments are collected and where they can be found

Warnings

Warning: Convenience fees can cause legal complications, so correctly configuring the fee is important. A convenience fee must meet general card brand network requirements, including the following:

  • Convenience fees must be disclosed to the customer before completion of a transaction.

  • You must allow cardholders to cancel the transaction upon reading this disclosure.

  • Convenience fees are only allowed for credit and signature debit card types.

  • Convenience fees are only allowed for card-not-present transaction types.

  • Convenience fees cannot be applied to recurring, subscription, or installment transactions.

Tips

Additional Resources

Set Up a Convenience Fee

Set Up a Convenience Fee for a Group of Merchants

1. Open the Group Profile

  1. Click GROUPS in the left navigation panel to open the Groups page.

  2. Locate the group in the table and select any information in the table row to open the Group Profile page.

2. Add a Fee to the Group Profile

  1. Click FEES in the list of tabs on the left side of the page.

  2. Click ADD FEE in the upper-right corner of the page to open the Add Fee lightbox on the page.

  3. Click the When to Schedule Fee drop-down menu and choose CAPTURE.

  4. Click the How Much is the Fee drop-down menu and then select from the following: Actual, Percentage, or Surcharge.

  5. Enter the fee in the Amount field.

  1. Click ADVANCED OPTIONS to open the Advanced section.

  2. Click the Conditional Rules drop-down menu and select TRANSACTION ORIGINATES FROM.

  3. Click on the drop-down menu that appears to the right of the Conditional Rules drop-down, and select one of the following alternative payment methods:

    • Terminal

    • E-commerce

    • Mail/Telephone order

    • Recurring

    • PayFrame

  1. Click ADD to finish setup.

Result: The fee is now visible in the group profile fees tab, and will trigger when a transaction from any Merchant associated with the group occurs using the alternative payment method.

Set Up a Convenience Fee for an Individual Merchant

1. Open the Merchant Profile

  1. Click MERCHANTS in the left navigation panel to open the Merchants page.

  2. Locate the Merchant in the table and select any information in the table row to open the Merchant Profile page.

2. Add a Fee to the Merchant Profile

  1. Click FEES in the list of tabs on the left side of the page.

  2. Click ADD FEE in the upper-right corner of the page to open the Add Fee lightbox on the page.

  3. Click the When to Schedule Fee drop-down menu and choose CAPTURE.

  4. Click the How Much is the Fee drop-down menu and then select ACTUAL.

  5. Enter the fee in the Amount field.

  1. Click ADVANCED OPTIONS to open the Advanced section.

  2. Click the Transaction Fee checkbox.

  3. Click the Conditional Rules drop-down menu and select TRANSACTION ORIGINATES FROM.

  4. Click on the drop-down menu that appears to the right of the Conditional Rules drop-down, and select one of the following alternative payment methods:

    • Terminal

    • E-commerce

    • Mail/Telephone order

    • Recurring

    • PayFrame

  1. Click ADD to finish setup.

Result: The fee is now visible in the Merchant profile fees tab, and will trigger when a transaction occurs using the alternative payment method.

Next Steps

After adding the new fee, review the following use case guides for additional information on related topics:

Conclusion

After the fee is created, it will automatically trigger any time one of your Merchants’ accounts process a transaction using an alternative payment method for their customer.

References

Click the links or items below to access any of the following pages:

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