Balancing Convenient Payment Options for Programs, Reservations, and More

Making it easy for residents to register for a program, reserve a facility, renew a membership, or pay for school-related activities is an important part of serving your community.

Credit cards help make those transactions convenient. But for the organization accepting them, the processing costs can add up.

That creates a familiar balancing act: How do you continue offering the payment experience people expect while being thoughtful about the costs your organization absorbs?

For many CommunityPass organizations, surcharging provides another option.

In this article, we’ll explore:

• Why convenient payment options matter
• How credit card processing costs can affect your budget
• How surcharging works in CommunityPass
• How to introduce Surcharging with the payer experience in mind
• What to consider before getting started

Why Convenient Payment Options Matter

When people can register and pay online, it removes friction from participating in the programs and services your organization provides.

That might mean registering a child for summer camp, reserving a community space, renewing a pool membership, signing up for an afterschool program, or completing another everyday transaction.

Credit cards offer a familiar, flexible way to complete those payments.

But every credit card transaction also comes with a processing cost. Over time, those costs can put additional pressure on organizations already balancing program expenses, facilities, staffing, and other community needs.

That doesn’t mean you have to make payments less convenient. It means it can be worth looking at the options available for managing those costs.

A New Way to Help Manage Credit Card Processing Costs

CommunityPass now offers surcharging to eligible organizations using Stripe.

A credit card surcharge is an additional amount applied to an eligible credit card transaction to help offset the cost of processing that payment.

With CommunityPass surcharging, organizations can set a surcharge of up to 3% on eligible credit card transactions, subject to applicable limits, card network rules, and state and local requirements.

Instead of absorbing the full processing cost associated with those payments, your organization can pass some of that cost to the person making the payment.

Surcharging applies to eligible credit card transactions only. ACH, debit and prepaid card transactions are not surcharged.

Keep the People You Serve at the Center of the Change

If your organization decides to enable surcharging, managing costs is only part of the equation.

The payment experience matters, too.

A surcharge should not feel like a surprise. Giving your community clear information about what is changing, why you are making the change, and what they will see when they pay can help create a smoother experience for everyone.

A few practices can help:

• Start with the why. Explain that accepting credit cards comes with processing costs and that surcharging gives your organization a way to offset a portion of those expenses while continuing to offer credit card payments.
• Make the cost clear before payment. CommunityPass displays the surcharge before an eligible credit card transaction is completed so the payer can see the additional amount before submitting payment.
• Preserve payment choice. Debit and prepaid cards are not subject to the credit card surcharge, giving payers another option when those payment methods are available.
• Give advance notice when appropriate. If surcharging will affect people who make recurring or automatic payments, communicate the change before the surcharge begins applying to those payments.
• Prepare your staff for questions. Give frontline team members a simple explanation of what is changing so they can answer basic questions and direct people to the right resource when needed.

Being proactive helps your organization introduce a cost-recovery option without losing sight of the people behind each transaction.

How CommunityPass Helps Keep the Payment Experience Clear

CommunityPass helps take some of the manual work out of applying a surcharge.

With CommunityPass surcharging, your organization can:

• Give payers visibility before they complete a transaction. The surcharge is clearly displayed as part of the payment experience.
• Reduce manual work for staff. The surcharge is applied automatically to eligible credit card transactions based on your organization’s configured rate.
• Avoid surcharging debit and prepaid cards. CommunityPass identifies eligible transactions so staff do not have to make that determination manually.
• Clearly itemize the charge. The surcharge appears separately on the payer’s receipt, helping make the total cost easy to understand.
• Manage the feature within CommunityPass. Eligible organizations can review the required terms and configure surcharging through their CommunityPass eCommerce settings.
  
  

Is Surcharging the Right Fit for Your Organization?

Every organization handles payment costs differently, so surcharging may not be the right approach for everyone.

Before enabling it, consider:

• How much of your payment volume comes from credit cards
• How processing costs affect your operating budget
• Whether surcharging is permitted for your organization and location
• The surcharge rate that is appropriate based on your processing costs and applicable requirements
• How you will communicate the change to your community
• Whether your organization qualifies for another CommunityPass cost-recovery option

Some government and education organizations may qualify for the service fee cost-recovery model, which follows a different set of eligibility requirements and may provide a better fit for how those organizations accept payments.

Your CommunityPass account manager can help you understand your options before you make a decision.

Ready to Learn More About CommunityPass Surcharging?

If surcharging is available for your organization, the CommunityPass Knowledge Base walks through how the feature works, important requirements, and the steps to enable it.

How to configure surcharging in CommunityPass

You’ll need to sign in to your CommunityPass account to access the article.

If you have questions about surcharging or want help understanding which payment cost-recovery option may be the best fit for your organization, reach out to your CommunityPass account manager.