Payor fees

Payabli supports multiple fee types that can be charged to the payor, such as convenience, service, surcharge, and platform or technology fees. Partners can submit the fee via API, or have Payabli automatically calculate and apply it on hosted payment solutions like payment pages and virtual terminals.

Whatever the fee type, Payabli carries it through a single value — the serviceFee field in the API, shown as Service Fee in the Payabli Portal. There’s no separate field per fee type; the fee is set up as part of your paypoint’s pricing configuration.

Considerations

Keep these considerations in mind when working with payor fees in Payabli.

• Card networks govern fees. Before you decide on your fee strategy, talk with the Payabli team to learn about best practices.
• Payabli helps you configure fee structure during merchant boarding.
• You must contact Payabli support to change fees or configuration options.
• Fees are non-refundable. Contact the Payabli team for guidance on the appropriate messaging to display at checkout.

Fee configuration

In addition to setting a percentage or dollar amount for fees, there are other configuration options. Contact Payabli to change these settings. See the API transaction examples section for examples of how these settings work.

Fees with API transactions

To charge a fee when running transactions via an API request or an embedded component, you must include the serviceFee value and a totalAmount value that includes the transaction amount plus the fee. The serviceFee is always a dollar amount, not a percentage.

If Payabli API receives totalAmount and serviceFee, the system compares the values to the pricing configuration for the paypoint.

System compares these values with configuration settings based on calculated serviceFee amount:

• If serviceFee is equal to the calculated value from the pricing configuration, then the transaction goes through. Payabli compares to 2 decimals and accepts a serviceFee plus or minus 1 penny.
• If serviceFee is greater than the calculated value from the pricing configurations, and if “Accept Greater value allowed config” is true, the fee goes through. If false, then entire transaction is rejected with return code 5006.
• If serviceFee is less than the calculated value from the pricing configuration, and “Absorb difference?” is true then the fee transmitted is processed, but the merchant absorbs the price difference. If false, then entire transaction is rejected with return code 5005.

API transaction examples

Absorb fee example

In these examples, a 3% fee is configured for the paypoint.

Example 1:

With the Absorb fee configuration option set to true, the merchant runs a transaction with a $100.00 subtotal, plus a $1.00 fee. The payor pays $101.00 total. This leaves the merchant to pay the $2.00 difference. $98.00 is transferred to the merchant when the batch is funded.

Example 2:

With the Absorb fee configuration option set to false, the merchant sends a fee of $1.00 with the transaction. The API returns a 5005 error code because the fee sent is less than the amount configured at the paypoint level. The system expects a 3% fee, which would equal $3.00 on the $100.00 subtotal, and the paypoint isn’t set up to absorb a fee difference.

Fee greater than configured fee example

In these examples, a 3% fee is configured for the paypoint.

Example 1:

The Accept greater value allowed for fee? configuration is set to true. The merchant makes a transaction via the API. The subtotal is $100. According to the paypoint’s fee setting, the fee should be equal to $3.00. Instead, the merchant adds a $5.00 fee, for a grand total of $105.00. This fee equals 5%. The fee is accepted and the transaction goes through. The merchant receives $100.00 when the batch is funded and the payor is charged $105.00.

Example 2:

The Accept greater value allowed for fee? configuration is set to false. You make a transaction via the API. The subtotal is $100.00. You add a $4.00 fee, for a grand total of $104.00. This fee equals 4%. The fee is rejected with a 5006 error code, and the transaction doesn’t go through.

Fees with UI transactions

Configuring fees at the paypoint level automatically applies the fees to every transaction the paypoint runs using any of Payabli’s hosted payment solutions. You only need to explicitly send fee amounts when making transactions using the API or embedded components.