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:
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.
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.
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:
Being proactive helps your organization introduce a cost-recovery option without losing sight of the people behind each transaction.
CommunityPass helps take some of the manual work out of applying a surcharge.
With CommunityPass surcharging, your organization can:
Every organization handles payment costs differently, so surcharging may not be the right approach for everyone.
Before enabling it, consider:
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.
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.