How to save on online payment service fees

When you accept online payments for your events, they are subject to online payment service fees, which are always composed of payment card processing fees and usually some kind of online service fee. To process any payment card, whether online or at a physical location, merchants always have to account for payment processing service fees. If you are new to this process, learn How Credit Card Transaction Processing Works — Steps, Fees & Participants.

These payment service fees are directly deducted by banks or credit card companies during the payment transaction and cannot be avoided. Payment processing fees and online service fees are part of running a business and are considered a business expense.

If you would like to save on these fees, you can try to minimize them or pass them on to your customers to pay. Described below are three ways how you can achieve this to save on these fees.

Minimize Fees: Find the most cost-effective online registration service.

There are many companies that offer online registration and payment services for events. However, their pricing, features, value, and ease of use vary tremendously. This is why the first thing to consider in order to save on online payment service fees is what the best and most cost-effective event registration service will be for your needs.

Some event registration platforms provide services based on monthly plans that you would commit to based on your business needs. These can range from moderate to very high monthly costs and are usually not a good idea if you don't offer events regularly or if you offer small-sized or low-cost events.
Some event registration services take a percentage fee per transaction of your total event price. This may be a good option if your event price is very low, but it will add up significantly if your event price is moderate to high.
Some event registration services charge a flat fee per transaction without any monthly commitments, irrespective of your event ticket price. As long as this fee is low and your event price is not too low (i.e., less than $10), this option will usually provide the most savings and flexibility. This is how Corsizio operates, as we aim to provide the most flexible and cost-effective solution for online registration payments.

Keep in mind that in addition to their own service fees or monthly plans, all service providers must charge payment card processing fees. Sometimes, these are bundled into the total service cost, but normally, they are extra on top of any monthly plans, percentage fees, or flat service fees.

Minimize Fees: Use a deposit feature for high-cost events.

Payment card processing service fees vary by country. They typically range from about 1 to 3% of the total price, plus around $0.15 to $0.30 extra. Corsizio uses Stripe to process payments on your behalf, and Stripe charges standard credit card processing fees, which you can find here listed by country.

Normally, these low percentages will not impact your revenue a lot for low-priced events but become increasingly significant the higher the cost of the event. For example, if you live in the US or Canada and are charged 2.9% plus $0.30 in credit card fees, here is what this would look like for the following event prices:

$10 event = $0.59 in credit card fees
$100 event = $3.20 in credit card fees
$500 event = $14.80 in credit card fees
$1000 event = $29.30 in credit card fees
$10,000 event = $290.30 in credit card fees

You can lower these fees and save money while still securing attendee registrations for your events by using the deposit feature, where you only request a small amount of your full event price to be paid upfront. This provides you with the opportunity to pay online payment processing fees on a smaller amount than the total price of the event and collect the remainder by cash, cheque, or bank transfer.

Pass the Payment Fees Onto Your Customers

Some business owners choose to save on payment processing fees by having their customers pay for them as part of the transaction. This can be done in one of two ways, where either the fees are hidden or are directly exposed to the customer.

1. Hide the fees and bundle them as part of the event cost

Using this method, you would include the online payment processing fees as part of the total cost of an event registration.

This is the preferred choice if you think your attendees may be discouraged from registering for your event if they see an extra cost. To do this, you need to raise the price of the event by the amount needed to offset the payment processing fees.

Here is the formula that you would use, as an example, with Corsizio's $1 service fee and the US and Canada Stripe rates of 2.9% + $0.30 credit card fees:

Total price that should be charged = (funds you want + flat service fee + flat credit card fee) / (1 - credit card percentage rate)

Here is how this looks like on a practical level if your event is $500, and you want to ensure that you receive this full amount in your bank account after service fees:

Total price that should be charged = ($500 + $1 + $0.30) / (1 - 0.029) = $516.27

Therefore, you would charge $516.27, or round up or down, depending on your preference, to present your attendees with a round number like $515, $517, or $520 as the event price.

You will notice that this amount is slightly more than the $500 plus $14.80 if you would do a straight-forward calculation, as you must keep in mind that the fees, in this case, need to be adjusted in a way that gives you the full $500 in the end.

2. Expose the fees and make them an additional cost

Using this method, you would add the online payment processing fees as an extra cost to the price of your event registration.

In Corsizio, you can do this by using the Add-on feature in Step 2 — Pricing & Payment, when creating or editing your event.

Turn on the "Include add-ons on top of the above cost" and check the "Add-on item" box.
Check the box to "Make this add-on required and mandatory," as opposed to optional.
Label the add-on item, something like "Registration fee" or similar, to make it clear on your registration form what this amount is for.
Enter the price amount for the registration service fee that you will charge your attendees.

This registration fee will apply to all registrations processed for that event, including any manual ones you add. If you would like to bypass this mandatory registration fee for any manual registrations you add from the backend, you would need to add the registration first without sending the confirmation email to the attendee. Then, you would modify the pending payment amount on the registration as you see fit, which would allow you to remove any add-ons. You can then proceed to send the confirmation email with the final amount to be paid by the attendee.

This is what the above add-on item registration fee configuration would look like on your registration form:

Final Tip

Whichever way you may choose to save on payment processing fees, be sure that you factor in and consider all of your variables. For example, the effort required to apply or implement a certain money-saving solution may not be worth your time. In other cases, your event's audience may or may not care if the event price is slightly more or less. Therefore, it is important not to lose sight of the final goal, which is to have successful events that you enjoy planning and hosting, along with an easy online registration and payment process for your attendees.