If you’ve enabled credit card surcharging and are still seeing processing fees deducted — that’s expected.
Surcharging helps offset your credit card processing costs, but it does not eliminate processing fees entirely.
Here’s how it works.
❓ What Does Surcharging Actually Do?
When surcharging is enabled:
A 3% surcharge is added to the customer’s invoice only if they pay by credit card.
The customer pays that 3% fee.
The goal is to help offset your processing costs.
It works similarly to manually adding a 3% card convenience fee to your invoices.
❓ Why Am I Still Seeing Fees Deducted?
Even with surcharging turned on, Stripe still deducts processing fees when the payment settles.
For credit card payments, Stripe calculates:
Standard processing fee
+ 1% additional transaction fee for surcharged payments
So while your customer is paying an extra 3%, the payment processor is still charging its required fees.
💰 What Are the Processing Fees?
Standard Fees:
2.9% + 25¢ per online invoice paid via credit/debit card
3.4% + 25¢ per manually entered or recurring card charge
Additional Fee When Surcharging Is Enabled:
+1% on credit card transactions
Stripe calculates:
Processing Fee + 1% (if surcharging applies)
❓ What If the Customer Pays by ACH or Debit?
If the customer does not pay by credit card:
No 3% surcharge is added.
Only the standard processing fees apply.
🧮 So What’s the Bottom Line?
The 3% surcharge generally covers most of the processing cost. That extra 1% is the cost of using the surcharging feature itself.
Therefore:
The additional 1% surcharge transaction fee
The fixed 25¢ per transaction
And any slight rate differences (like 3.4% for manual charges)
…mean there may still be a small remaining portion that you cover.
Surcharging reduces your cost — it just doesn’t bring it to zero.