Credit Card Surcharging

[Podgeminster]

Hi.

I have been searching for an existing plug-in that I can adapt for my requirements but haven’t quite been able to find what I’m looking for so I’d be really grateful for any suggestions.

I would like to make an addition to the “Payment Information” page (step 2 of the checkout process) asking the customer to choose if they which to pay by CREDIT card or DEBIT card and charge an additional percentage fee if the customer chooses to pay be CREDIT card.

My payment service provider charges just short of 3% to process some credit cards (corporate credit cards are the most expensive) but only a few pence to process debit cards. I would like to continue to offer the option to pay with CREDIT card but encourage the customer to consider using the cheaper to process DEBIT card.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[stevesh]

Search for 'surcharge' in the Plugins area. It looks like there are several options.

[RixStix]

As Stevesh said, there is a plug in that allows for that. I'm not sure if it is in the zencart plugins area or a free Numinix plugin.

That being said, though in the US some CC surcharges are legally allowed, if I ever visited a website that imposed a surcharge for utilizing a CreditCard, the next click would be an abandoned cart. I'm not even sure that steering a customer to a preferred card is within the payment card contracts here in the US. If you have not checked the contract conditions, you might want to verify that you are allowed to impose the surcharge.

[gilby]

As Stevesh said, there is a plug in that allows for that. I'm not sure if it is in the zencart plugins area or a free Numinix plugin.

That being said, though in the US some CC surcharges are legally allowed, if I ever visited a website that imposed a surcharge for utilizing a CreditCard, the next click would be an abandoned cart. I'm not even sure that steering a customer to a preferred card is within the payment card contracts here in the US. If you have not checked the contract conditions, you might want to verify that you are allowed to impose the surcharge.

fwiw If you are here in Oz
Try to book a flight, pay your electricity, water, rates, etc. That ALL impose surcharges for cc's, some (the airlines) charge far more than the cc fees would be. Websites here selling low margin items (technology) also impose cc surcharges.

Myself, I don't charge them on my websites, but I see a lot more acceptance of it here and it is legal (here in Oz).

[stevesh]

I'd agree with RikStix, though recent changes in US federal law prohibit the credit card companies from stopping Zenners in the US from doing what you're intending, as they did in the past. Much better, I think, to spread the extra cost over all orders.

Most of my online purchases are from large online sellers, and none in my experience try to add a CC surcharge.

[stevesh]

Sorry to reply to my own post, but it would also depend on whether or not you intend to make the surcharge visible as a line item to the customer. I only use credit cards for online purchases for reasons having to do with US law. It's unlikely that anyone would try to checkout using both credit card and debit card to see if either involved a surcharge. I don't know how I would feel about discovering a hidden surcharge, but I suspect I wouldn't like it.

[Podgeminster]

I have searched 'surcharge' in the Plugins area and have found a load of surcharging plugins – they all have the same problem though – they only allow you to set one surcharge per payment module – they don’t have the capability to enable you to vary the percentage surcharge between different card types when processed through the same payment module.

In other words, I currently process CREDIT cards and DEBIT cards through one payment module. I would like to surcharge CREDIT cards only (not DEBIT cards). However, the various plugins I have found allow me to surcharge both CREDIT and DEBIT cards through this module but do not have the capability to surcharge CREDIT cards only (but not DEBIT cards) or vice-versa.

(I hope that all made sense guys!)

It is legal to surcharge here in the UK but I'm currently absorbing the costs into my prices.

The problem is, my rivals are surcharging credit cards which gives them an unfair advantage in Google's Shopping results - their prices appear lower than mine because I'm having to inflate my prices by 1-2% to absorb the credit card processing costs.

My hope is that surcharging the CREDIT cards only (but not the cheaper to process DEBIT cards) will gently encourage the customer towards the payment method which is cheapest for me to process. This way everyone's a winner - the customer gets the very cheapest price I can afford to offer (without destroying my margin) and I reduce my processing costs.

[torvista]

how do you handle card payment processing and at what point in that process can any differentiation be made between a credit and a debit card?

[gilby]

how do you handle card payment processing and at what point in that process can any differentiation be made between a credit and a debit card?

There must be a difference in the UK as to what a debit card actually is (compared to what they are in Oz)?

Here in Australia, debit and credit card have the same prefix and can be on the same card with a customer choosing which account to use at a pos terminal. When used online they are all processed as a credit card.

Maybe the op can set up a surchage with their processor changing the surcharge as specified?

[Podgeminster]

Here’s how I worked around the problem:

1. I found and installed a second payment module so I now have two near identical payment modules installed - both are configured to work with my card processing company.

2. I then found and installed a plugin designed to apply a surcharge to any of the payment modules installed.

3. I used the surcharge module to apply a 3% surcharge to the second, newly installed payment module.

4. Finally I edited the look of the “Payment Method” selection box on page 2 of the checkout process as follows: On this page the customer is presented with two radio buttons to select one or the other payment module. The radio button for the first payment module is simply labelled “DEBIT CARD (No Surcharge)” - The radio button for the second payment module is labelled “CREDIT CARD (3% Surcharge)”. If you click this radio button the 3% surcharge appears in the “Your Total” box between the “Tax” and “Total” rows and the surcharge amount is added to the “Total”. The surcharge figures also automatically appear on the invoice emailed to the customer.