Within TutorCruncher, you can pass card processing surcharges on to your Clients. When you do so, it's important to understand how this impacts the total payment and the fees applied, so that you receive the full amount that you are owed.
TutorCruncher has built this functionality with the philosophy that your company should always receive the full expected amount when passing on processing fees to Clients. The detailed examples below illustrate how this works in practice for both UK/US based companies as well non UK/US based companies.
Card processing surcharges for companies based in the UK/US
Let's say you're a UK based company on our Pay as You Go plan and pay a processing fee of 2.65% (this includes the Stripe processing fee and TutorCruncher's platform fee). You can choose to pass this fee on to your Clients.
To make sure your branch receives the full expected amount after the fee is applied, we may need to add an additional surcharge on top of the Client's payment.
Let's take an example of a £100 lesson here:
Card processing surcharge passed to the Client:
Online Payments fee = 2.65% of £100 = £2.65
To cover this, the Client is charged: £100 + £2.65 = £102.65Actual fee charged on the new total:
The fee is calculated on the new total (£102.65): 2.65% of £102.65 = £2.72Amount received by the company:
Client pays: £102.65
Minus processing fee calculated on the new amount: £2.72
Net received: £102.65 − £2.72 = £99.93
As you can see, to ensure you actually receives £100 after fees, the Client's payment will need a small additional surcharge. This charge is added to the Client's payment.
Note: If you're based in the UK or US, you have the option to pass on the added fee for international and premium cards to your Clients — 1.5% for international cards and 2% for American Express, Diners Club, JCB, and UnionPay cards.
Card processing surcharges for companies based outside UK/US
Let's say you're a company based in Canada, on our Pay as You Go plan, with a Stripe processing fee of 2.9% + a fixed fee of $0.30 per transaction. You can choose to pass this fee on to your Clients.
When you add the processing fee on top of the Client's payment, TutorCruncher's platform fee (1% in this case) is calculated on the new total, not the original amount. This means TutorCruncher's fee also increases slightly.
To make sure your branch receives the full expected amount after the fees are applied, we may need to add an additional surcharge on top of the Client's payment.
Let's look at an example to see how this works:
Suppose a Lesson costs $100.
Stripe fee passed to the Client:
Stripe fee = 2.9% of $100 + $0.30 = $3.20
To cover this, the Client is charged: $100 + $3.20 = $103.20
TutorCruncher fee:
TutorCruncher takes 1% of the new amount ($103.20) = $1.03
Amount received by the company:
Client pays: $103.20
Minus Stripe fee calculated on the new amount: $3.29
Minus TutorCruncher fee calculated on the new amount: $1.03
Net received: $103.20 − $3.29 − $1.03 = $98.88
As you can see, to ensure you actually receives $100 after fees, the Client's payment needs a small extra charge to cover both Stripe and TutorCruncher fees. This charge is added to the Client's payment.
Note: The Online as well as Offline Payments fee varies depending on your price plan. You can check your fee by navigating to System > Billing.
Frequently Asked Questions
What can I say to my Clients if they question the surcharge amount?
Some Clients will look at their invoice and find the surcharge looks slightly higher. It isn't - it's just calculated on a different figure.
Card fees are charged on the total amount your Client pays, not on the invoice amount alone. Using the example above, a £100 invoice with a 2.65% fee passed on means your Client pays £102.72, and £2.72 of that covers fees. That £2.72 is 2.65% of £102.72 which is exactly the rate you've set, worked out on the same basis the card networks use. It only looks like 2.72% if you measure it against the £100 invoice on its own.
So saying "we pass on a 2.65% card processing fee" instead of "2.65% added to your invoice" is accurate, and that's the wording we'd suggest using.
What if I want the figure to match my rate as a percentage of the invoice?
In that case, you can set your surcharge rate slightly lower, say around 2.58% in this example and the amount added comes to almost exactly 2.65% of the invoice (£2.65 on £100). The trade-off is that you absorb the difference, roughly 7p per £100, rather than passing on the full card cost.