Common Fees

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

A common fee is a buyer charge that passes any additional cost to the buyer (e.g. tip, delivery fee, processing fee).

Common fees are flexible and used for a variety of situations; however, common fees can't be named or presented to buyers in a way to offset the cost of processing payments or accepting cards.

Examples

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:

NameDescription
Administrative FeeA fee charged to buyers to cover costs related to administrative services as part of a service or good.
Bottle Deposit and Bag FeesA fee charged to the buyer for containers and packaging.
Cleaning FeeA fee charged to the buyer for costs related to cleaning property.
Delivery FeeA fee charged to buyers to cover costs related to delivery.
Fuel SurchargeA fee used to cover costs related to fuel which can fluctuate greatly. This can be in addition to any other fee, including delivery.
Marketplace FeeA fee charged to marketplace users to cover costs related to the regulatory, safety and operational requirements the marketplace must follow.
Priority FeesA fee charged to the buyer for faster delivery or service.
Processing FeeA fee charged to buyers to cover costs associated with processing an order.
Regulatory FeeA fee charged to buyers to cover costs associated with government regulation.
Shipping FeeA fee charged to buyers to cover costs associated with shipping or mailing out goods.

Requirements

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

  • Sellers can name the Common Fee anything as long as it sufficiently describes the fee's purpose.
  • The fee should be priced in line with the actual cost of the fee's purpose.
  • The fee needs to be consistently used throughout your integration.
  • The fee cannot be related to the costs of processing cards or payments.
  • The fee must be disclosed to the buyer and included in the receipt.
  • After the fee gets disclosed, the buyer must have the option to cancel the transaction without any consequences.

Finix API

When creating a Transfer (or Authorization) with Common Fees, you don't need to pass any additional information in the request. The amount value should represent the total amount of the transaction.

  • Name and present the field to avoid confusion with any Convenience, Service, or Surcharge Fees.
  • Consult with your legal counsel to ensure you're compliant with government rules
  • If you'd like to track the fee, we recommend either storing the value on your system, or passing the field in the tags.

See the following for a Transfer that includes a delivery fee.

  • The example is a $50 food delivery payment with a delivery fee of $3.
  • The fee is included in tags for tracking purposes.
Common 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 '{
        "amount": 5300,
        "currency": "USD",
        "merchant": "MUeDVrf2ahuKc9Eg5TeZugvs",
        "source": "PIe2YvpcjvoVJ6PzoRPBK137",
        "tags": {
            "delivery_fee": "300"
        }
    }'