Let's talk merchant fees and why I don't think we should oncharge them to customers
EPISODE 17
Notes
I’m coming to you from Fiji! Can you hear the island vibes?
In this episode, I’m talking about merchant fees (bank fees) and whether you should pass these on to your customers or not. This is just my opinion and I want to bring you this episode to give you a chance to reflect.
Merchant fees are charges incurred by a business using credit cards to take payments, eg. Visa, Mastercard, Amex. Almost all of us have gone to a cafe and paid the credit card surcharge so you would've seen this method in practice.
I’ll explore how payment methods have changed over the years and the implications for businesses. All of the credit card taps and direct debit transactions cost the business money and many businesses then pass these fees on to their customers.
But should you?
I’ll discuss my 4 points not in favour of oncharging my customers for you to mull over. Don’t stress, I used to charge merchant fees too at the beginning of Straight Up Bookkeeping and it wasn’t until I read an article by Rebecca Mihalic (click here) that I was inspired to stop.
After all, it’s always good business to make it easy for customers to buy and pay on time, so why would we charge them for that?
Resources mentioned:
Kudos to this article by Rebecca Mihalic from Ignition that first inspired me not to oncharge the merchant fees in my business: https://www.ignitionapp.com/blog/merchant-fees-to-oncharge-or-not-to-oncharge
About the
Author
Bec is a chartered accountant who worked at Australia’s big firms and banks for 15-years. Faced at a crossroads in her career, she backed herself, left her corporate job and launched Straight Up Bookkeeping. 3 years and 5 staff later, Straight Up Bookkeeping is one of Australia’s leading virtual bookkeeping businesses for creatives, with a mission to free business owners from financial stress so they can grow their empires.
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