By default, we always charge payment processing fees directly to the member making the payment. This way, your club or organisation will always get the full amount you’re owed without having to worry about incurring unexpected expenses. 

However, for clubs or organisations that want to encourage online payments to reduce admin work associated with reconciling cash or bank transfer payments, we offer the ability to absorb or cover either part or all of the payment processing fees.

Note: Some countries may not allow passing on payment processing fees, so please check your local regulations to ensure you can pass on fees to your members.

If you are not covering all the payment processing fees, it is important to ensure that your members are charged the correct rates. If you have a special non-profit agreement with your payment providers, make sure to tick the checkbox to indicate that you are charged non-profit rates:

This will reduce the fees that Hello Club charges the members to reflect your non-profit status and Stripe's non-profit rates in your country.

Find out more about Stripe’s non-profit rates to see if you are eligible.

To change your fee cover strategy, go to the Integrations module and open either the Stripe or POLi card. 

Under the Fee Strategy tab, you will find settings that govern how payment processing fees are charged and what amount (if any) is covered by the club or organisation.

For Stripe, you can use separate strategies for either domestic or international cards. As most countries will incur higher fees for international cards, this allows you to adjust your fee cover strategy accordingly.

For reference, you will find the actual fee structure applied to online payments in your country at the top of this card, which includes Hello Club platform fees where applicable.

You can choose from three different fee cover strategies depending on what suits the needs of your club or organisation best:

This is the default option, and it ensures that you are not faced with any unexpected payment processing fee expenses, as these will be passed on to your members.

With this strategy, members paying online will be charged a small additional amount on top of the payment amount, which is used to cover the payment processing fee.

Your club or organisation will receive the full amount owed by the member and will not have to worry about any fees.

If you want to absorb the full amount of the payment processing fees, you can select this strategy. 

Members paying online will not be charged anything extra, and the payment processing fees for credit/debit card payments will be charged to the club or organisation directly.

The third option is to partially cover the payment processing fees, up to an amount that you see fit. The portion that you cover will be taken out of your payout, and the member is responsible for paying the remainder of the fee.

This can be used if you want to lower the fees that your members have to pay, but at the same time limit the amount that you’re willing to cover.

More information on this strategy can be found below.

If you select partial cover, you can choose what percentage of the transaction amount you wish to cover, as well as optionally a fixed amount. You can also specify a maximum amount that you are willing to cover:

In the above example, the club or organisation will cover 1% of the transaction amount plus a fixed amount of $0.50, up to a maximum of $5.00 per transaction.

Irrespective of what you enter here, you or the member will never have to pay more than the actual fee charged by the payment provider.

With the example calculator at the bottom of the card, you can work out how the payment processing fees will affect the amounts that your members will pay and how much our club or organisation will receive after payment processing fees have been deducted, depending on your selected fee cover strategy and settings.

Simply enter an example amount and the fee details will be updated automatically:

John needs to pay $100 for his membership fee. He decides to pay online through Hello Club and use his international credit card.

John's club doesn’t absorb any payment processing fees, so John will be charged $100 + $3.88 = $103.88 which includes the fee.

The fee is then deducted, and John’s club receives the full $100. 

Mary also needs to pay $100 for her membership fee. Her club however absorbs the payment processing fees fully. Mary will thus be charged $100 for her transaction.

The fee is then deducted from the payout to the club, and Mary’s club receives the transaction amount minus the fee, e.g. $100 - $3.75 = $96.25. 

If you have difficulty deciding what fee cover strategy is best for you, or if you need a hand with the settings, chat with us or send us an email and we’ll be happy to help.