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Comment by nodesocket | Hacker News Reader

Does anybody know if using Stripe if we can pass the 2.9% fee onto our customers? We offer customized consulting plans that vary and typically in the thousands, so thinking of just adding a 3% credit card processing fee to the invoice for clients that use card.

Researching around the net, it seems for traditional brick and mortar, some issuers don't allow you to charge a percentage based card processing fee. Any idea is this is allowed on Stripe?

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It's complicated and depends on things like where you're charging and whether or not it's a "fee" for using the card vs. offering a cash discount (how these are not essentially equivalent is beyond me):

Sections 1.5.4.2 & 5.6

https://usa.visa.com/dam/VCOM/download/about-visa/15-April-2...

Section 5.11.2

https://www.mastercard.us/content/dam/mccom/en-us/documents/...

IANAL, etc.

Thanks, I may have to reach out to Stripe directly to get an answer. My fear is that Stripe will say it depends on Visa, Mastercard, AMEX and defer to them which is not very helpful.

That's very likely to happen, unfortunately...

I did run across this link, which might explain why when you asked your initial question I was thinking "no way", but after reading the recent agreements was like "maybe so" (I worked in payments for a number of years, and always heard that cash discounts/surcharges for credit card use were disallowed).

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/14/business/mastercard-and-vi...

So apparently there was a suit about that very problem which was settled in 2012. It looks like you would be able to, but if you're charging multiple thousands on the regular, it would probably be worth it for you to pay a lawyer to make sure you're in the clear. HTH.

Those sections specifically state that those rules don't apply in the U.S. (anymore). That's the Durbin amendment.

I would check with your ISO/Processor...but you're pretty much fine as long as you charge a generic credit card surcharge and treat all cards the same. You only really get into trouble with Visa/MC/Amex/Discover when you start charging different fees on different transactions.

Source: I used to run a payment gateway & ISO.

Yes. The Durbin amendment specifically prohibits processors from restricting you from offering a discount for payment by other means.[1] What you found on the net probably is out of date.

Incidentally it also regulates debit interchange down to practically nothing. Processors like Stripe are making a killing on debit. Try to find one that does "interchange plus" pricing, and then you can accept debit at no additional cost to your customers.

[1] see p7 http://blog.legalsolutions.thomsonreuters.com/wp-content/upl...

I use Square and Paypal for my business invoicing because you can send invoices that can be paid via credit card via email. I add a 3% card fee explicitly to all my invoices. No one any of these companies has ever said anything. I also offer the option of Bitcoin and wire transfer payments for invoices w/o a fee.

Bitcoin fees are around 65 cents per transaction right now.

https://bitcoinfees.21.co/

http://www.btcsatoshi.com/

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Transaction_fees

That the sender pays, not the merchant

We work with Stripe exclusively, and offer credit card or ACH invoices. ACH we don't charge any fees since the maximum fee from Stripe is $5. Credit card is another story since our invoices are in the multiple of thousands (2.9% adds up).

why don't you just raise your prices?

I can't really think of a specific, non-political reason to show the fee to the customer specifically on the payment terminal. If it's important to call it out, just put it on he invoice/receipt.

I work with tons of software companies that pass additional fees onto customers (so like 4% processing fee, and keep the residual).

Note - none of them I work with have used Stripe. They are normally using a gateway provider (like NMI) and a payment processor (like PayPro, Auth.net, Vantiv, etc). Stripe combines the merchant, gateway and payment processor into one bundle.

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