Feature request - surcharges

[mikesee]

When will it be possible to configure surcharges in Square?

I see some old discussion topics (2 years) saying it is on the roadmap.

There are several reasons why we need surcharges but the two big ones for me:

1. Apply a credit card surcharge to all card transactions

2. Apply a Sunday or public holiday surcharge. This is pretty essential in Australia due to the higher wage costs.

Needs to be automated and rules-based.

[#2]

Hi Sellers! 👋

Just jumping in here to share some exciting news about automatic surcharging!

We're thrilled to announce that Square’s Automatic Card Surcharges Beta Program is now open to all eligible Australian Sellers! This much-anticipated feature allows you to seamlessly pass on processing fees for card payments directly to your customers.

Getting started is easy. Eligible Sellers can now activate and manage one automatic surcharge directly from their online Square Dashboard. Once set up, the surcharge will be automatically applied when a customer pays with a card from:

- Square Point of Sale

- Square Restaurants POS or Square Retail POS apps on compatible iOS devices, Android devices, Square Terminal, and Square Register

To learn how to set up your automatic surcharge, visit Get Started with Service Charges Beta. 

For questions or feedback on this new experience, please join the Card Surcharges Group in the Beta Seller Community.

We're eager to hear your thoughts and experiences with this new feature. Feel free to drop your comments below!

[#3]

EDIT (July 2022): We've started to roll out Service Charges (AKA Surcharges) in Australia, which you can read more about here. The first iteration supports:

• The Square Point of Sale app
• Manually applied fixed ($) or variable (%) surcharges
  
  

In future iterations of Service Charges we hope to support:

• More Square products (eg Square for Restaurants, Square for Retail, Invoices etc)
• Automated service charges, so you won't need to manually add it

---------------

Hey @mikesee,

I'm sorry to say that I don't have an update on surcharges right now.

We're still tracking feedback on this and it's a popular request from Australian sellers. For now we recommend building surcharging into the overall price of your goods as you might other operating expenses, or you can manually calculate a surcharge into the overall cost of a given transaction.

If you would like to pass on credit card processing charges to your customers, you can use the following to calculate what you would charge.

For transactions put through a Square Reader at 1.9%:

Transaction amount divided by 0.981

e.g. $100 / 0.981 = $101.94 - you'd add $1.94 as a 1.9% surcharge.

For “Card not Present” transactions at 2.2%:

Transaction amount divided by 0.978

E.g. $100 / 0.978 = $102.25 - you'd add $2.25 as a 2.2% surcharge.

For transactions put through Square Terminal at 1.6%:

Transaction amount divided by 0.984

e.g. $100 / 0.984 = $101.63 - you'd add $1.63 as a 1.6% surcharge.

Why Wouldn’t I Just Add 1.9% or 2.2%?

Square’s card processing fees are based on the overall transaction amount, so if you’re adding $1.90 to a $100 transaction, the transaction becomes $101.90, not $100. Using the above formulas accounts for this small change to the overall fee on transactions if you’re adding a surcharge

Should you decide to apply a surcharge, it is your responsibility adhere to Australian regulations as set out by the ACCC.

[TheB0ss]

Can I vote for this also, I would love to just set the days that the public holiday surcharge will apply.. and leave it for a while, without worrying about turning a tax on and off.

Can we not just reverse the discount?

[Mel_Mc]

Has there been any further traction on this ? An automatic surcharge option would be soooooo helpful.

[Seamus]

Not yet @Mel_Mc - we'll update this thread if this changes in the future.

[RobertK241]

This is unbelievable that this is not doable - i'm literally looking at alternatives that can do this surcharge automatically.

For now - I have to calculate everything in my invoice program and square seperately because i can't take payments in invoice program as it doesn't do a surcharge.

Like seriously - Maybe square will only bring this out when they can charge their customers to include it.  Just like how they removed the salesperson sort - they are trying to juice the orange for as much as they can

[saintlucifer]

but when you add a custom tax it doesn't show up in the square online store only on the square POS correct? I don;t understand why i can add surcharges to invoices but not to square online sales. it is so frustrating having to turn off square online every public holiday or just cop the lost revenue.

[Seamus]

@saintlucifer Yep, at the moment Square Online doesn't support custom taxes in Australia - not ideal, I know!

I'll continue passing this feedback on to our eCommerce team, I hope this is something we're able to implement into the platform in the future.

[wbds]

Voting for this feature as well in Australia!  For smaller amounts small business can cover the charges but larger amounts it takes a huge chunk out of profits, so automating the addition of surcharge would be great!

[AU5quareuser]

It is exactly because of our responsibility to adhere to Australian regulations as set out by the ACCC, that your recommendation for now in building surcharging into the overall price of your goods is not complying with the Australian Regulation. It is essentially then a hidden CC fee which from what I understand is what the ACCC does not allow. The ruling was made to ensure there was regulation and transparency for consumer protection. What you are recommending goes against the reason why this regulation was introduced. In additional the costs of goods in Australia is already quite high. This would be increasing prices across the board and is not a fair way to distribute the costs to those who are not paying via credit card. ie cash sales.  

[Mmp74]

I think you have miss interpreting what was said. 

Have the function to add a surcharge as the correct % would stop people overcharging or having a flat fee which is illegal. Hence why if the option was to have a button  that is the exact charge people can charge the correct amount.

Personally I don't charge anything! But some businesses do and that is their choice.  Yes the cost of living is high but realistically when has it not!

The point of this community and beta is to have ideas that no only work for your business but also for the great good of Square as a professional product.

Look at how many cafes charge extra for Sunday or public holidays. It would be great for the to have the option to easily add a surcharge but to calculate the correct amount.

[GSS1]

Hello,

Just wondering if it is possible to automatically add merchant fee to transactions made by credit card purchases?