Common Fees

Learn about the requirements and what you can do with Common Fees.

A common fee is a buyer charge that passes any additional cost to the buyer (e.g. tip, delivery fee, processing fee).

Common fees are flexible and used for a variety of situations; however, common fees can't be named or presented to buyers in a way to offset the cost of processing payments or accepting cards.

Examples

Here are a few examples of the different fees you can charge buyers using common fees. Please note that this is only a selection of the different names sellers can call common fees:

Name Description
Administrative Fee A fee charged to buyers to cover costs related to administrative services as part of a service or good.
Bottle Deposit and Bag Fees A fee charged to the buyer for containers and packaging.
Cleaning Fee A fee charged to the buyer for costs related to cleaning property.
Delivery Fee A fee charged to buyers to cover costs related to delivery.
Fuel Surcharge A fee used to cover costs related to fuel which can fluctuate greatly. This can be in addition to any other fee, including delivery.
Marketplace Fee A fee charged to marketplace users to cover costs related to the regulatory, safety and operational requirements the marketplace must follow.
Priority Fees A fee charged to the buyer for faster delivery or service.
Processing Fee A fee charged to buyers to cover costs associated with processing an order.
Regulatory Fee A fee charged to buyers to cover costs associated with government regulation.
Shipping Fee A fee charged to buyers to cover costs associated with shipping or mailing out goods.

Requirements

Sellers and your integration must meet these requirements to charge Common Fees:

  • Sellers can name the Common Fee anything as long as it sufficiently describes the fee's purpose.
  • The fee should be priced in line with the actual cost of the fee's purpose.
  • The fee needs to be consistently used throughout your integration.
  • The fee cannot be related to the costs of processing cards or payments.
  • The fee must be disclosed to the buyer and included in the receipt.
  • After the fee gets disclosed, the buyer must have the option to cancel the transaction without any consequences.

Finix API

When creating a Transfer (or Authorization) with Common Fees, you don't need to pass any additional information in the request. The amount value should represent the total amount of the transaction.

  • Name and present the field to avoid confusion with any Convenience, Service, or Surcharge Fees.
  • Consult with your legal counsel to ensure you're compliant with government rules
  • If you'd like to track the fee, we recommend either storing the value on your system, or passing the field in the tags .

See the following for a Transfer that includes a delivery fee.

  • The example is a $50 food delivery payment with a delivery fee of $3.
  • The fee is included in tags for tracking purposes.
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curl https://finix.sandbox-payments-api.com/transfers \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -H 'Finix-Version: 2022-02-01' \
    -u  USsRhsHYZGBPnQw8CByJyEQW:8a14c2f9-d94b-4c72-8f5c-a62908e5b30e \
    -d '
    {
        "amount": 5300,
        "currency": "USD",
        "merchant": "MUeDVrf2ahuKc9Eg5TeZugvs",
        "source": "PIe2YvpcjvoVJ6PzoRPBK137",
        "tags": {
            "delivery_fee": "300"
        }
    }'