Processing fees: rates and who pays them

The rates

These are Commit’s standard rates, and they always include everything: Stripe’s processing cost and Commit’s platform fee. There is no separate charge on top. If your club has negotiated custom pricing, your percentages differ but the math below works the same way.

Cards (and Apple Pay / Google Pay)

Bank payments (direct debit)

Bank payments cost families and clubs roughly half of what cards do, which is why many clubs encourage ACH as the default payment method.

Absorb the fees, or pass them on

Both options are one club-wide switch. With a $100 invoice and US card rates:

• Absorb (switch off): the family sees and pays exactly $100. Stripe deducts the fee from the payment, and your club receives $96.10 (fee: $3.90).
• Pass on (switch on): the family sees $100 plus a Processing fees line and pays $104.05. Your club receives the full $100.00.

The passed-on fee ($4.05) is slightly more than the absorbed fee ($3.90). That is not an error: when the family covers the fee, the fee itself gets processed too, so the amount is grossed up so that your club nets the exact invoice amount.

For the same $100 paid by ACH instead: absorbed, the club receives $98.30 (fee: $1.70); passed on, the family pays $101.73 and the club receives $100.

The formulas, for treasurers who want to check the math (rate and fixed charge from the tables above):

• Passing on: family pays (amount + fixed charge) ÷ (1 − rate); the fee is the difference from the invoice amount.
• Absorbing: fee = amount × rate + fixed charge, deducted before payout.

Where to set it

Web app Mobile app

1. Team-wide default: go to Settings → Team and find the Pass on processing fees switch in the Team Information section. Its help note reads “When enabled, payment processing fees will be added to member payments.” This default applies to program enrollments, registration checkout, meet entry invoices, and new invoices.
2. Per invoice: every Create new invoice dialog has its own Pass on processing fees toggle, prefilled from your team setting. Flip it either way for that invoice alone; the Processing fees line and invoice total update before you create anything.
3. If the account has credit, the credit is applied first and fees are calculated on what actually gets charged.

How Commit knows which rate to use

• Autocharge invoices use the family’s default payment method on file: a saved bank account gets bank rates, a saved card gets card rates.
• Request Payment invoices calculate fees for the payment method you pick in the dialog (Card by default). If a family pays a card-rate invoice with their bank account anyway, the invoice amount does not change.
• Registration checkout and enrollments follow your team switch. Families on a recurring plan see their price listed as an amount ”+ fees” when fees are passed on.

Common questions

Why did the family pay more than the listed percentage? Passing fees on grosses the charge up so your club nets the full amount (see the math above). On small invoices the fixed charge is also a bigger share: $0.20 on a $5 invoice is 4% by itself.

Do families see the fee before paying? Yes. A passed-on fee is always its own Processing fees line on the invoice, never folded invisibly into the price.

Can we pass fees on for registration but absorb them for one invoice? Yes. The team switch sets the default and each created invoice can override it. Program billing and registration checkout always follow the team switch.

How do we cut fees for our families? Encourage bank payments. US ACH at 1.7% with no fixed charge is less than half the card rate on a typical invoice.

Are fees returned when we refund? See Refunds, disputes and failed payments for how refunds work.

Where do we see what we actually received? The payouts and invoice breakdown reports show gross, fees, and net for every payout. See Set up payments and Reports guide.