Previously known as the Convenience Fee. Charge a transaction surcharge when clients pay by credit card through your payment link.
Not available in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts or Puerto Rico.
These jurisdictions prohibit credit card surcharges. If your office address is in one of them, ISN does not offer the Transaction Surcharge setting and never adds a surcharge to your clients' payments, even if one was set up before. Please don't add a surcharge to orders by any other means, such as a manual fee.
How the surcharge works
Credit cards only. The surcharge is never added to debit or prepaid cards, including business debit cards. If you process payments with CardPointe (CardConnect), ISN checks the card type when your client enters their card and removes the surcharge automatically for debit and prepaid cards. If CardPointe can't confirm the card type, the surcharge is applied. If you use a different payment processor, ISN can't tell a debit card from a credit card, so contact your processor about how to stay compliant.
Maximum of 3%. A percentage surcharge can be set to at most 3%.
Based on your office's state. Whether a surcharge is allowed depends on the state in your office's address, not your client's.
Before you start
If you haven't already, create a fee to hold the Transaction Surcharge at Settings → Office Settings → Inspection and Fee Settings → Fees. Learn how to add a fee.
Make sure your office address, including the state, is correct.
Set up the Transaction Surcharge
Go to Settings → Office Settings → My Office Settings → Transaction Surcharge. If you don't see this option, your office is in a state where surcharging isn't permitted.
Read the legal disclosures in the window that opens, then check Use the Transaction Surcharge System.
Choose whether to charge a percentage of the total or a fixed amount.
Enter the amount.
Percentage: up to 3. For example, enter 2.5 for 2.5%. A value above 3 won't save.
Fixed amount: numbers only, with no dollar sign.
Select the fee the surcharge is applied to. This fee should hold only the transaction surcharge. Don't pick a fee you use for other charges.
Optionally, add a custom message describing the surcharge to your clients. Leave it blank to use the default message.
Click Save.
What your clients see
Your online payment page shows Debit/Credit Card as a payment option. If you use CardPointe, the page also says "Debit and prepaid cards are not charged a surcharge." When the surcharge applies, the page also shows:
The total amount due contains a transaction surcharge of $x.xx. If you desire not to pay the convenience fee and would like to make the payment using another method please contact our office at -officenumber- to make arrangements.
If your client enters a debit or prepaid card (CardPointe only), the surcharge comes off the total right away, before they pay. Their receipt shows Transaction Surcharge: Not applied.
Use the %convenience-fee-raw% code in your message to insert the surcharge amount automatically.
Checking whether the surcharge was charged
When a client pays by card and a surcharge is set up, ISN adds a note to the order saying what happened:
Transaction surcharge of $X applied (card verified as credit).
Transaction surcharge of $X applied; the card type could not be verified. This means your processor isn't CardPointe, or CardPointe couldn't confirm the card type.
Transaction surcharge not applied: debit or prepaid card.
No note is added for ACH payments, or when no surcharge was set up.
CardPointe card payments also show as Credit Card or Debit Card on the order's payment page, payment details and paid stamps, and on your client's payment page. Payments made before this update, and payments through other processors, show as Card.
Important: where the surcharge applies
Once set up, the surcharge applies automatically only to the first credit card payment made through your payment link. It is not added automatically when you collect payment in ISN, in ISN Mobile, or through a payment request. To include it in those cases, add it on the order form V1 or how to add it on the Order form V2. Only do this when your client is paying by credit card, since a surcharge added by hand isn't removed automatically for a debit card.
If you have any questions about this process please let us know! You can reach us by chat, email at help@inspectionsupport.com, or phone at (800) 700-8112.