Surcharge Fees

Learn about the requirements and what you can do with Surcharge Fees.

Surcharge fees are available to sellers to help cover the cost of processing payments in any environment.

For more details about surcharge fees, see the following article from Visa: Visa Merchant Surcharge Q and A.

Requirements

Merchants must be enabled by Finix to process surcharge fees. Reach out to your Finix Point of Contact or Finix Support at least 35 days in advance before processing surcharge fees.

Please note each individual Merchant account needs to be registered before they can process surcharge fees.

Sellers and your integration must meet these requirements to charge Surcharge Fees:

  • The surcharge fee must be included in the Transfer#amount or Authorization#amount you include when creating transaction.
  • The fee must be a percent.
  • The amount or percent you set must be the same for all transactions that include a surcharge fee.
  • The surcharge fee can't exceed 3% of the transaction or your total average cost of credit card acceptance.
  • 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.
  • Controls must be in place so surcharges are only applied in states where allowed.

The Payment Instrument#card_type field details if a debit (DEBIT) or credit card (CREDIT) was used.

Refunds for Surcharges

When refunding a transaction that has a surcharge, the full amount must be refunded to the card holder. This is a card brand rules requirement.

Learn more about how to manage refunds here.

Using the API

When making a transaction with a surcharge fee, include the surcharge fee in surcharge_amount when creating a Transfer or an Authorization.

See the following for an example of paying a $10,000 parking ticket with a $300 (3%) surcharge fee.

Before including the surcharge_amount verify the buyer's Payment Instrument#card_type is CREDIT.

Surcharge Fee Example
curl https://finix.sandbox-payments-api.com/transfers \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -H 'Finix-Version: 2022-02-01' \
    -u  USsRhsHYZGBPnQw8CByJyEQW:8a14c2f9-d94b-4c72-8f5c-a62908e5b30e \
    -d '{
        "additional_buyer_charges": {
            "surcharge_amount": 30000
        },
        "amount": 1030000,
        "currency": "USD",
        "merchant": "MUeDVrf2ahuKc9Eg5TeZugvs",
        "source": "PIe2YvpcjvoVJ6PzoRPBK137",
        "tags": {
            "surcharge_amount": "30000"
        }
    }'