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Service Fees

Learn about the requirements and what you can do with Service Fee.

Service fees are available to sellers in the education or government industry to help offset the cost of processing payments.

Requirements

Service fees are only available to eligible Merchant Category Codes (MCCs) under Education and Government.

  • The seller must be enrolled in the appropriate programs for each card network:
  • Eligible sellers can use a third party to charge service fees. This includes your own platform and application.
  • The buyer must be aware of the fee and its purpose before making a payment.
  • After the fee gets disclosed, the buyer must have the option to cancel the transaction without any consequences.
  • The fee must be similar to the sum of all costs of accepting a card (suggested 3%).

Sellers who are not eligible and can't join the card network programs can use Convenience Fees as an alternative.

Finix recommends the following service fees.

MCCs excluding MCC 9311

For MCCs other than 9311 - Tax Payments, we recommend setting the service fee to about 3% of the seller's average transaction.

MCC 9311 - Tax Payments

For MCC 9311 - Tax Payments, cardholders must be charged a fixed, flat fee, no greater than $10 per transaction.

Compliance Deadline: 23 January 2027

Merchants processing tax payments under MCC 9311 must comply with this fee cap by 23 January 2027.

Eligible MCCs

MCCs that are eligible to use Service Fees include:

CodeDescription
9211Court Costs, including Alimony and Child Support
9222Fines
9223(MasterCard only) - Bail and Bond Payments
9311Tax Payments
9399Government Services (Not Elsewhere Classified)
8211Elementary and Secondary Schools
8220Colleges, Junior Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools
8244(Visa only) - Business and Secretarial Schools
8249(Visa only) - Vocational Schools and Trade Schools
8299(Mastercard only) - Schools and Educational Services (Not Elsewhere Classified)

Using the API

Include the service fee in convenience_amount when creating a Transfer or an Authorization.

See the following for an example where a $5200 delivery has a service fee:

  • The transaction is for a $5200 delivery with a Convenience Fee of $150.
  • The fee is included in tags for tracking purposes.
curl -i -X POST \
  -u USfdccsr1Z5iVbXDyYt7hjZZ:313636f3-fac2-45a7-bff7-a334b93e7bda \
  https://finix.sandbox-payments-api.com/transfers \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H 'Finix-Version: 2022-02-01' \
  -d '{
    "additional_buyer_charges": {
      "convenience_amount": 150
    },
    "amount": 5200,
    "currency": "USD",
    "merchant": "MUmfEGv5bMpSJ9k5TFRUjkmm",
    "source": "PIkxmtueemLD6dN9ZoWGHT44"
  }'