Fee Creation and Customization
With Payrix, you can seamlessly create new fees and customize existing fees. This is also how you can monetize the payment services you are providing to your Merchants. There are a variety of different fee types you can implement, in addition to myriad customizations to fees which you will read about in this section.
Fees can be customized for a specific client, or you can create standard and portfolio-wide fees via the Groups function in the Portal (or via the /orgs endpoint in the API).
Creating a Fee
When creating a fee, you will need to define what causes the fee to trigger, who is paying the fee, who is receiving the fee payment, the type of fee etc.
Fee Types
In addition to customizing the existing standard Payrix processing fees, you can create new custom fees unique to your portfolio. Some of the most common custom fee scenarios are:
Fee Type | Description |
|---|---|
Onboarding fees | Create and collect a fee from your Merchants as they sign-up for Payrix. This customization allows our partners to seamlessly implement a portfolio-wide or individual new account creation fee. |
Transaction fees | Create fees when a transaction is initially authorized so that even if the transaction fails due to the processor/issuer you are still recouping funds. Alternatively, you can set up a fee on a Capture event, where you will collect funds when the transaction batches and settles. Most commonly, a flat fee on Authorization and a basis point fee on at Capture is implemented. E.g. $0.15 flat fee on an auth schedule and a 20 basis point percentage (20%) on a capture schedule. You can also create fully customized transactional fees by utilizing a fee listener. |
Chargeback/dispute fees | Managing your Merchants’ dispute responses may require additional manual effort and an investment in time. You can charge a custom dispute fee to offset your increased overhead or simply as a means to monetize your payment services. |
Platform service fee | Creating a custom platform service fee is an ideal way to automatically bill your Merchants for your services based on your user agreement. For example, if your platform charges users a monthly or annual service fee, you can create this directly in Payrix - eliminating the need for a third-party billing solution. |
Interchange/processing fee | Interchange and assessment costs are passed on from the processor and card brands. If you want to pass along these to your Merchants you can set up an interchange fee schedule at 100% so that they are responsible for covering the fees. |
Fee Schedules
On the Payrix Platform, we support 47 different fee schedules that can be configured as a fixed amount or a percentage (depending on the type of fee). You can apply as many fees as you’d like to a merchant account, and you can customize when the fee is set to start and how often it is applied. For example, you can create a bi-weekly fee and set it to begin triggering on a date of your choice.
Fees can also be tailored via Fee Rules which will apply a fee only when certain conditions are met, such as customizing fees per card brand, based on the transaction amount, CVV/AVS results, etc. This allows you to set up pricing that is tailored to your clients and offer optimized rates based on payment best practices, such as reduced rates for card-present transactions or transactions that have a full CVV/AVS authorization.
Fee Implementation
Example Scenarios
Directly on Merchants (Entities)
Fees can be applied directly on an individual merchant account via the API or Portal. Using this allows you to completely customize pricing for each Merchant in your portfolio. This also means you will need to manage multiple fees for each Merchant and batch updates if you need to make any changes.
More Broadly on Groups (Orgs)
You can apply a fee to multiple Merchants or your entire portfolio via the API or directly in the Portal using the Groups feature. By setting up fees via Groups, you can offer your Merchants a variety of pricing structures or break it out into tiered pricing. This allows you to easily manage how you are charging your Merchants based on the custom fee Group you’ve added them to.
Per Transaction
Because of the flexibility to set up fees as either a percentage or fixed amount, a per-transaction fee allows you to calculate and send a fully customized fee through on each transaction rather than relying on our fee pricing logic. When submitting a fee together with a transaction you create a “Fee Listener.” This method deducts the fee you included in the transaction request from the total and charges that amount to the merchant. This is ideal for clients with unique pricing agreements with their Merchants, and for those requiring more flexibility rather than relying on a set percentage or flat rate fees.
Who Pays a Fee - Fee Modifiers
By default, when you set up a fee it is applied directly to the Merchant and paid to your referrer account (Available Balance). Another fee customization option gives you the ability to set an entity of your choice as liable for a specific fee. By setting up Fee Modifiers, you can change who is paying the fee. As an example, if you have a fee that you want to charge one Merchant based on the activity of another account (e.g. they are a linked business) - you can set up a Fee Modifier so that when a merchant triggers a fee, the funds will be taken from a different merchant entity.
Click here to read about how you can set up a Fee Modifier.
When Does a Fee Trigger
Custom fees are configured to trigger at either timed intervals (monthly, yearly, etc.) or event-specific instances that occur in real-time. For example, when an Auth fee is set up, it will be incurred as soon as a transaction is authorized on our platform. However, when you set up a fee for a specific date, such as a monthly or yearly service fee - this will be charged on the date specified when you created the fee.
When configuring a fee based on a timed trigger, you will be prompted to enter an interval then a field will appear to enter the frequency. In contrast, event-specific fees trigger whenever the specified event occurs on our Platform, regardless of the frequency or timing.
If you modify a fee, this can impact how the Merchant is charged. For example, if you have a monthly fee set to apply on the 1st of the month and update it to the 15th, the Merchant can potentially incur two monthly fees if you make this modification in between the original and new trigger dates (e.g. you make this change on the 7th of the month). Additionally, if you were to change a fee type from authorization to capture, you would need to time this change after the batch has closed so the Merchant does get charged multiple times in error.
Timed Fee Triggers
Trigger | Description |
|---|---|
Days | This fee will trigger every x amount of days based on the frequency you enter. For example, this image shows a $10 fee set to trigger every 3 days:  |
Weeks | This fee will trigger every x amount of weeks based on the frequency you enter. |
Months | This fee will trigger every x amount of months based on the frequency you enter. For example, this image shows a $10 bi-annual fee (“every 6 months”):  |
Years | This fee will trigger every x amount of years based on the frequency you enter. |
Single | This is a one-time fee that will occur immediately but will not repeat. |
Event-Specific Fee Triggers
Trigger | Description |
|---|---|
Auth | This fee will trigger whenever a payment is Authorized (i.e. whenever a payment is Approved). |
Reverse Auth | This fee will trigger whenever a Merchant voids an Approved payment. |
Capture | This fee will trigger whenever an Approved payment changes to the Captured status. |
Refund | This fee will trigger whenever a Merchant refunds a payment. |
eCheck Sale | This fee triggers whenever an eCheck (ACH) payment is submitted. |
eCheck Refund | This fee triggers whenever a Merchant refunds an eCheck (ACH) payment. |
eCheck Return | This fee triggers whenever an eCheck (ACH) payment is returned (i.e. it fails due to issuer decline). |
Board | This fee triggers when a Merchant’s account is created on the Payrix Platform. |
Payout | This fee triggers whenever a disbursment is sent to a Merchant’s bank account. |
Achfail | This fee triggers whenever a disbursment sent to a Merchant’s bank account fails or returns. |
Chargeback | This fee triggers whenever a first chargeback dispute is initiated against a Merchant. |
Retrieval | This fee triggers whenever a retrieval dispute is initiated against a Merchant. |
Arbitration | This fee triggers whenever an arbitration dispute is initiated against a Merchant. |
Overdraft | This fee triggers whenever a Merchant’s Payrix Available Balance goes negative (e.g. as a result of a refund or dispute). |
Interchange | This fee triggers whenever interchange is assessed to a transaction. |
Settlement | This fee triggers whenever a Captured transaction changes to the Settled status (non-imported transactions only). |
How Fees Are Collected
All movement of money, including both transactions and fees, are recorded as entries in the Payrix system. This tracks who is receiving funds or paying for a fee. Once a fee is applied, a Processed Entry is created to immediately deduct this from the entity that paid the fee. This is then reflected in the entity account Available Balance and can be reviewed within your Balance Details page.
Note that non-funded transactions such as American Express direct sales, will not create entries.
A pending entry will record a movement of funds that hasn’t occurred yet, like a Refund that has not captured/settled. Once a fee is no longer “pending” and is in your Payrix account balance, it is available for funding via your next scheduled Payout.
A fee cannot be deleted once it has been applied or if it is on or past the present date. This ensures there are no orphaned events in our system for a fee schedule that no longer exists. You can set fees to inactive or modify the fee based on your needs, just remember to note the timing implications.