Understanding IC+ Fees

To analyse your IC+ fees granularly, we recommend using the Transaction-level report (Note: this documentation is only available to logged in IC+ users). This report lists each fee associated with each transaction, and can serve as a raw data set for any custom analysis.

When reviewing IC+ fees, it’s imperative to understand that there are two fee categories: Stripe fees (denoting fees set by Stripe) and Network Costs (denoting fees set by a payment network).


To review your Stripe IC+ fees

  1. Navigate to the Payments fees tab of your Financial Reports suite, and select the date range you’d like to review
  2. Download the Transaction-level report. We recommend using at least the “Default” data columns, but you may add any others if desired
  3. Once downloaded, open the report in Excel or a similar data analysis application
  4. Filter fee_category = stripe_fee

The remaining rows will fall into one of two fee_names: volume_fee and per_auth_fee. The volume_fee is the percentage component of your IC+ pricing, and the per_auth_fee is the fixed component. In other words, if your card payments pricing was IC+ 0.45% & $0.20, the volume_fee would show as 0.0045 (0.45% expressed as an integer), and the per_auth_fee would show as 0.2.

To see the amount assessed for the volume_fee

Review the variable_rate column. This rate will then be applied to the value in the variable_volume_amount column to yield the subtotal. Using the example pricing structure above, for a card payment of $60.00, the subtotal would be $0.27 (60 x 0.0045).

To see the amount assessed for the per_auth_fee

Review the fixed_per_item_amount column. Since this is a fixed fee, it’s assessed according to the value in the fixed_per_item_count column. Using the example pricing structure above, for a single card payment of $60.00 (e.g. fixed_per_item_count = 1), the subtotal would be $0.20 (0.2 x 1).

To review your Network Costs

  1. Navigate to the Payments fees tab of your Financial Reports suite, and select the date range you’d like to review
  2. Download the Transaction-level report. We recommend using at least the “Default” data columns, but you may add any others if desired
  3. Once downloaded, open the report in Excel or a similar data analysis application
  4. Filter fee_category = network_cost

The remaining rows will fall into one of four fee_names: card_scheme, non_transactional_card_scheme, interchange, or discount. These fees are explained a bit more in our documentation on the Payments fees report. Note: this documentation is only available to logged-in IC+ users.

There are several data columns that can help you better analyse network costs.

plan_name

The name of the assessed interchange/discount plan or card scheme fee

charge_id

If populated, the ID of the charge that resulted in the payments fee

event_type

The type of event that incurred this fee (e.g. charge_authorized, refund, customer_created, etc.)

Additional information and FAQs

Public information for interchange, discount, and scheme fees

Where can I find public sources of Interchange fees for the US?

Where can I find public sources of interchange fees for the EEA (European Economic Area)?

Where can I find public sources of interchange fees for Canada?

Where can I find public sources of interchange fees for Australia?

Where can I find public sources of interchange fees for other countries?

If the card networks have published their rates, you can generally find them by performing a web search for, as an example, “Visa Interchange Rates [Country Name]”.

Where can I find public sources of scheme fees?

Card networks do not generally publish scheme fees.

Why can't I find Visa's refund interchange rates on their website?

Visa refers to refunds/returns as "Credit Vouchers" in their public interchange documentation.

When am I charged the Stripe per_auth_fee?

Per-auth fees are incurred for each instance you direct Stripe to submit a request to a payment method, including for authorisation (successful and declined), void, charge, reversal, or to validate a card (e.g. attaching a card to a Customer). These are often referred to as "gateway conversations". So in other words, per-auth fees are not just for a successful charge, but rather any gateway conversation described above.

Each per-auth fee assessed will be the same amount, regardless of the type of gateway conversation.

How can I review the payments fees for a single charge?

To review the payments fees for a specific charge, perform the following steps:

  1. Download the transaction-level report, ensuring that you select a date range that includes the charge in question
  2. Filter the charge_id column to only rows that contain the charge ID in question

You can now review and sum the payments fees incurred for this charge

Related links

Fee refunds and reassessment when backdating a switch to IC+