Buyer Charges

This guide outlines the fees eligible merchants are able to charge their customers to offset the cost of payment processing when using certain card brands.

Additional fees, called buyer charges, are available for sellers to charge buyers. To enable Buyer Charges:

• Finix Core only: See Update Merchant to Enable Buyer Charges.
• Finix Flex only: Reach out to Finix Support and request that the seller's Merchant account be enabled to use Buyer Charges.

Use the Finix Dashboard to verify buyer charges are enabled for sellers:

Available Buyer Charges

The buyer charges available to sellers include:

• Common Fees: Any additional charges passed to the buyer that is not used to offset the cost of processing payments. (e.g. delivery fees, fuel costs, priority fees, handling fees, utensil fees, etc.)
• Card Brand Fees: Charges used to offset the cost of processing payments. Card Brand Fees are regulated and monitored by card networks. (e.g. Visa Rent Fees, Convenience Fees, Service Fees)

For most situations, we recommend using common fees.

Common Fees

Here are a few examples of the different fees you can charge buyers using Common Fees. Please note that this is only a selection of the different names sellers can call common fees:

Card Brand Fees

Here are the different Card Brand Fees sellers can charge buyers using Buyer Charges. Card-Related Fees are regulated by card networks and include:

Comparing Buyer Charges

Please consult your legal counsel if you have questions about a seller's eligibility to use Buyer Charges. Eligibility is determined by card brands and their operating rules.

Verifying the seller complies with the fee and surcharge rules listed in Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules (section 5.5.1.8 - Credit Card Surcharge Requirements) is an excellent guideline to confirm if the seller can use buyer charge.

See the following for a comparison and questions to help you determine if Buyer Charges are appropriate for your seller's use case.

Buyer Charges and the API

Once enabled, Merchants can include a buyer charge with the Transfers or Authorizations they create to process transactions and move funds.

To include a buyer charge with a transaction, when creating a Transfer or Authorization, include the additional_buyer_charges object to detail what portion of the amount should get paid out as a buyer charge.

The value passed for a buyer charge will not impact the amount charged to a cardholder. Instead, only amount determines how much the buyer gets charged.

Buyer Charges and Payouts

Transactions with buyer charges pay out funds the same way as other transactions in Finix.

• Transactions with Buyer Charges can be identified by the Transfer#additional_buyer_charges (or Authorizations#additional_buyer_charges) fields.
• The seller gets paid out Transfer#amount (or Authorization#amount) minus any fees that were applied to that transaction or configured in the seller's Fee Profile.

Update Merchant to Enable Buyer Charges

Finix Core customers can use a PUT request to enable buyer charges for a Merchant. For Finix Flex customers reach out to Finix Support and request the seller's Merchant account be enabled to use Buyer Charges.

curl https://finix.sandbox-payments-api.com/merchants/MUeDVrf2ahuKc9Eg5TeZugvs \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H 'Finix-Version: 2022-02-01' \
  -u  UStxEci4vXxGDWLQhNvao7YY:25038781-2369-4113-8187-34780e91052e \
  -X PUT \
  -d '{
    "convenience_charges_enabled": true,
    "rent_surcharges_enabled": true,
    "surcharges_enabled": true
  }'

HTTP Request

PUT https://finix.sandbox-payments-api.com/merchants/:MERCHANT_ID:

Request Arguments

The APIs to update Merchant flags are only available for Finix Core customers. If you have additional questions, please reach out to your Finix point of contact or Finix Support.

Buyer Charges and Fee Profiles

For accounting purposes, if you plan on categorizing Buyer Charges as fees, we recommend making these changes to the Payout Settings and fee_profile of Merchants:

• Set the Payout Type in Payout Settings to Net. For more details, see Managing Your Sellers and Payouts.
• Set the fixed_fee on the fee_profile to 0. For more details, see Collecting Seller Fees and Fee Profiles.
  • In the dashboard, update Per Item next to All Card Brands.
• Set basis_points on the fee_profile to the Buyer Charge you'll pass on to buyers.

Use the following equation to calculate basis_points. Be sure the entered value is converted into basis points (BPS = Buyer Charge Percentage X 100):

Once calculated, update basis_points in fee_profiles with the new figure (converted to basis points). Alternatively, in the dashboard, update Per Item next to All Card Brands.