---
title: Payments | Absorb Fees, Pass on a Convenience Fee or Surcharge
description: How to pass on the credit cards fees
---
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# Payments | Absorb Fees, Pass on a Convenience Fee or Surcharge
## Best way to pass on your fees depending on your country: including technology costs and payment processing for credit cards or ACH. Surcharging is not always allowed, so we give you convenient options.
### To Surcharge or not to Surcharge?
While many consumers are used to an extra charge for the use of credit cards, there are a lot of restrictions about surcharging that the merchant of record must comply with based on their circumstances (like country, state, and card type).
When using YouLi with a connected gateway, you are the merchant of record for any charges made. This means you have complete control over your payments and responsibility to comply with the rules when accepting credit card payments.
Which also means you get to chose how you cover the cost of credit card usage. This article explains the options YouLi provides and some considerations to help you decide which is right for you.
### Australian Surcharge Ban
Be aware that Australia has changed their surcharge rules as of October 1, 2026.
Read on to learn how to use YouLi to choose the best option for your business:
1. **Absorb Fees**
2. Re-price using the "Pass on a **Convenience Fee**" feature that includes more than just card charges and is applied across *all payment methods*
- Calculate your **Convenience Fee.** This is NOT the cost of credit card payments, it should be all your fees for providing the service this fee represents, *read below for an example of how to calculate.*
- If you have [No-fee payment methods](https://support.youli.io/360001333075-no-fee-direct-payment-methods-up-to-4-options?hsLang=en), select **ALL Payment Methods** to ensure the Fee is not just applied to Credit Cards. Otherwise the default of "All Stripe enabled payment methods" is correct.
1. - Choose an accurate **Fee Label on Invoice**, YouLi defaults to "Service Fee", but you can change to Platform Fee, handling fee, etc, read on for more details.
- Confirm the **Fee Disclosure Text** is correct, this will show "on entry" so Travelers know there is a fee up front, this is required for AU companies using this feature.
- Update your terms & conditions to clarify the fee you are adding and the service being provided for that fee to ensure the distinction from a surcharge is clear.
**NOTE:** The new Fee Label will apply to all invoices sent from the platform going forward, even if that was called surcharge in the past. This is controlled on a per TRIP basis if you want to keep old trips with the surcharge label.
[To understand more about the change review our AU specific guidance on this transition based on our webinar.](https://blog.youli.io/australia-card-surcharge-changes-should-your-travel-business-absorb-reprice-or-mix?hsLang=en) This includes details from the RBA FAQ about the fees that are still allowed.
### Where's my old surcharge feature?
Previously YouLi offered a surcharge feature that applied only to connected payment gateway charges. As of September 2026, we've converted to a Convenience Fee model.
**If you have established you can keep applying a flat surcharge only for credit card payments** you can retain the older surcharge functionality, simply by configuring these options via PRICING:
- Select "Pass through **Convenience Fee**"
- Replace the Fee Percentage with the correct surcharge (3 in this example)
- Change the Fee Label to **Surcharge**
- Remove any Fee Disclosure Text
### How should I handle my payment fees?
Most clients have two options on the YouLi platform on a per TRIP basis under UPDATE TRIP -\> PRICING.
US companies can enable a 3rd option for "Surcharge Capping" (on request):
### Jen and Nick discuss the Options
Watch this video to get our take on the options in a friendly (and sometimes funny) discussion
### 💸 Simplest: Absorb Fees
**This is the most compliant option and avoids any grey area regarding compliance with surcharge rules.**
This is the simplest option, this means you should ensure the costs your have identified (3.5% in our example below) should be added to your package pricing before adding to YouLi.
This amount shows bundled into the price and not as a line item on the invoice and charged regardless of payment method (including no fee payment methods).
### 💰 Transparent: Convenience Fee
**A good option if you need your headline price to be competitive, while still being transparent that there are additional fees for using the platform.**
This is a good option when you have a clearly stated service or management fee included in your terms & conditions.
This option makes it clear to your Travelers that there is an additional cost and it is **shown as a line on their invoice when checking out with the exact amount added (not just the %)**.
This is not a surcharge if it includes all your costs (as outlined below) and is applied to all payment methods to make it even clearer it is not a surcharge.
This is an option for AU companies and any country where surcharging is banned, but **it is your responsibility to confirm this implementation complies with your obligations before using.**
If you chose to only apply it to Credit Card/Stripe payments then it is often considered a surcharge in many countries and you might be violating the terms of use for your gateway in your country.
Remember that since this is not a surcharge, **it does not need to be limited to the amount of the payment processing fee charged by your gateway**. See below for an example of how to determine the right fee.
#### 💳 Sophisticated: Surcharge Capping (US Only - on request)
**This option is only supported for US companies at this time, as other countries explicitly ban surcharging, while the US has state by state rules.**
**Use this option if:**
- you've never had a surcharge before and want to roll it out responsibly
- you want ACH surcharge to be 0% compared to the credit card fee (this creates a clear surcharge scenario)
- Or you want variable surcharging mixed with [Adaptive Pricing](https://support.youli.io/stripe-adaptive-pricing-multi-currency-option?hsLang=en) to accept payments in 150+ currencies.
[Learn more about Surcharge Capping](https://support.youli.io/surcharge-capping?hsLang=en)
### What Convenience Fee percentage should I use?
###### To answer this, let's consider what fees are associated with Payments on YouLi.
Getting paid always has some overheads. These expenses include technology services (like YouLi), staff expenses for reconciling and the biggest one: payment fees from your gateway for processing the payment.
These all factor into your costs and should be used to determine the right Convenience Fee.
- #### Payment Processing Fees
- `1.5-6%` [Gateway fees](https://support.youli.io/360001334836-how-to-set-up-payment-methods-for-your-travelers?hsLang=en)** vary by country and gateway and payment method and card type used**
- [Check Stripe Fees for the typical percentage charged in your country.](https://stripe.com/)
- If you are using [Square, check their documentation.](https://squareup.com/help/)
- `0%` [No-fee direct payment methods](https://support.youli.io/360001333075-no-fee-direct-payment-methods-up-to-4-options?hsLang=en) are only available on YouLi and help you keep your payment processing fees low but with some manual steps required.
- #### Handling Fees
- **`varies` The staff cost of reconciling and handling payments.** Usually you are trading off this fee for payment processing fees, so it should be that a higher payment processing fee means less manual handling.
- When using [No-fee direct payment methods](https://support.youli.io/360001333075-no-fee-direct-payment-methods-up-to-4-options?hsLang=en) each payment must be "Marked as Received" by hand (or using the API with an external automation).
- You'll need to estimate this cost when considering the fees you need to recoup in your pricing.
- #### Technology Fees
- `0-2%` YouLi Booking Fees vary by plan. If you are looking to drop your technology fee to **0%**, [book an Enterprise demo to explore if an up front annual payment saves you money](https://meetings.hubspot.com/jennifer-fein/enterprise-request-call?utm_source=support&utm_campaign=ENTERPRISE).
#### Example Fee Scenario
For a Trip Planner that is processing $1M/year in payments, in United States, the typical credit card payment will have a 2.9% fee.
If they are on Grow Annual, they can offer [No-fee direct payment methods](https://support.youli.io/360001333075-no-fee-direct-payment-methods-up-to-4-options?hsLang=en).
Let's say that 30% of people use the no-fee options.
That means $300,000 has $0 in Payment Processing Fees and $700,000 has 2.9% Payment Processing Fees which is $20, 300.
They spend about 4 hours per week handling payments (and refunds/disputes), at $35/hour. So for the year that is: $7,280.
Grow Annual has a 1% YouLi Booking Fee, which is ONLY on gateway processed payments (the $700,000 from above). So that is $7,000.
That brings the annual total cost of payments for this Planner to:
- Payment Processing: $20,300
- Handling: $7,280
- Technology: $7,000
For a grand total of $34,580, which is 3.5% of $1M.
So the amount of the fees they need to add to the cost of their trips to maintain their margin is: `3.5%` which is the number we will use in this document to demonstrate the concept.
**NOTE: **Every company is different, so the scenario above is to provide a methodology to arrive at a valid number for your business.
### What is a Convenience Fee and how should I label it?
Convenience Fee is a feature YouLi offers so you can pass on all your costs as noted above as a line item on your Traveler's invoice.
This is not the same as a surcharge (read below for more on the difference), so you have to decide what you call it.
What to call it? Here are some suggestions
- Service Fee
- Management Fee
- Handling Fee
- Booking Fee
- Platform Fee
- whatever you call it, make sure you define it in your terms and conditions.
**NOTE:** If you used YouLi prior to the release of Convenience Fee in 2026, you might still see "Surcharge" as the label. You should adjust that based on your actual definition of the fee.
For Australian clients YouLi defaults to the label "Service Fee", but this can be changed to match your terms & conditions.
#### What payment methods should the fee apply to?
If you are in a country that bans surcharges (AU, UK, etc) then if you use a Convenience Fee, you must choose the option that covers all the payment methods you enable for the TRIP, otherwise it could be considered a surcharge.
Ultimately this is your choice about your compliance obligations.
To see what payment methods you have enabled via Stripe, click on the arrow to go to Payment Methods in your dashboard.
If in doubt: choose **"Stripe and all enabled payment methods below"** so this fee won't be mis-interpreted as a credit card surcharge. (If you are connected to a gateway other than Stripe this will say **"Credit Card and all enabled payment methods below"**)
#### What is Fee Disclosure Text?
This is required for AU companies and for Surcharge Capping, otherwise it is optional.
- Leave blank and no disclosure will be shown.
This is how you inform travelers that a fee will be applied up front, so it is transparent and helps avoid complaints about an unexpected fee on checkout.
If set, this text will show when users hovers over the (i) that appears next to the price before they get to the invoice.
This supports the requirement in many countries and states that you must disclose "on entry" that there is a fee associated with purchasing on this platform. This helps people know that the price shown is not the final price. Use this feature to describe what service the fee covers, this supports compliance both when the fee is a surcharge and when it is not, the key is transparency up front.
You can configure what the message says, by default for AU clients it is:
`An additional [FeeLabel] will be applied on payment for use of this platform`
Adjust this to match your terms & conditions to properly define what service the fee is for. The shortcode `[FeeLabel]` ensures the fee label shown on the invoice matches the disclosure.
#### Can I vary my fee per payment method, specifically ACH?
Yes, for ACH, but when using Convenience Fee, it cannot be 0.
**TIP:** Make it 0.001% if you need to make it close to 0 without switching to the Surcharge Capping.
If you need to charge 0% on ACH, consider the [Surcharge Capping](https://support.youli.io/surcharge-capping?hsLang=en) feature.
### What is a Surcharge?
**A surcharge is an extra fee added to the payment to cover the cost of the credit card. And in many countries and some US States, it is not allowed by the card networks to add a surcharge as this discourages the use of the card.**
The most popular method for travelers is credit card, but that's also one of the expensive ones (though not the most expensive, so [check the cost of those extra methods before enabling](https://support.youli.io/stripe-payment-methods-ach-afterpay-direct-debit-wallets?hsLang=en)).
- Credit Card payments are extremely convenient for travelers and can be initiated via Stripe, Square or PayPal on any [YouLi subscription.](https://go.youli.io/pricing/)
- A Surcharge is an extra fee added to the invoice, dynamically, when they choose to pay with a credit card or [an alternative Stripe payment method](https://support.youli.io/stripe-payment-methods-ach-afterpay-direct-debit-wallets?hsLang=en).
- In the example below, if the TRIP DEPOSIT is $400, and the surcharge is set to 2%, then the traveler will be prompted pay an extra $8 if they select credit card as their payment method.
- In this example, if they select to pay via bank transfer, then the Surcharge is not added. That's what makes this a surcharge, the fact that the other payment methods do not incur the extra charge.
**NOTE:** Adding a Surcharge or Convenience Eee may not cover the actual fee charged because Stripe does not provide the fee amount prior to the charge being made - read on for details.
#### How do I know what fee to add?
Great question!! There is no perfect answer to this. Because you don't know the cost of the charge until it has completed and adding the fee increases the charge, so that increases the payment process fees too.
The actual payment processing fee depends on:
- Card brand (Visa/Mastercard/Amex)
- Debit vs credit
- Domestic vs international
- Currency conversion
- Additional products used (Radar, Tax, Billing, etc.)
The gateways and the credit card companies do not want you to put surcharges and they don't always know the fees up front either.
**🧾Detailed example:**
**
*That's still better than losing the full $15.86 in fees.*
You can play with the surcharge to either overcharge or undercharge your traveler depending on your philosophy and the laws governing your business.
**NOTE: **YouLi's **Enterprise** clients pay [no booking fee](https://go.youli.io/pricing/), so schedule a [sales call](https://meetings.hubspot.com/jennifer-fein/enterprise-request-call) to learn about your options!
### How to Set Up the ACH specific fee with Convenience Fee
From your Account \> Payments, enable the ACH Surcharge option, be sure to toggle ON the "Enable option to set ACH specific surcharge per Trip"
From your YouLi dashboard \> click into a trip \> Update Trip \> Pricing \> scroll towards the bottom, under Payment Methods:
**WARNING:** If the ACH fee is set to 0% it falls back to the fee above (2% in this case) - so if you don't want to charge a large fee, we recommend 0.001%
[Learn more about Surcharging for US companies that allows for 0% ACH](https://support.youli.io/surcharge-capping?hsLang=en)
Go to Manage People & Reports \> Trip CRM \> go to any traveller and open their Magic Link in a new window \> Invoice \> choose the appropriate options, and click 'Pay Now' \> in the pop-up payment window, you'll see ACH (US bank account) with the 1% surcharge indicated:
If you click on Card (for credit card) you'll see that it says 3% for the surcharge:
**NOTE:** **Co-Planners** on trips cannot edit TRIP COSTS, so it must be changed by the **Trip Owner** or **Team Member**.
### Where do I see the ACTUAL credit card fees?
All this distinction between the Surcharge and the actual fee charged can be confusing. The best way to understand is to add the Surcharge and then see the difference.
#### There are two ways to see the Surcharge:
**Option 1.** Go to your Trip, then click MANAGE PAYMENTS, click to the PAYMENTS report. This will show the Surcharge as a line item so you can compare.
In the example below you can see that the surcharge does not cover the fees collected in this case, so it would be a good idea to increase the surcharge.
**NOTE**: If the settlement currency is different than the charged currency, then the surcharge will NOT be split into a separate line (to avoid currency conversion errors).
**Option 2.** Go to your Stripe account and click on a payment that came through.
Look at the payment details and hover over the information icon. That will show you the "You Live to Travel" application fee, tax, and stripe processing fees.
If you enable the Surcharge, the extra money you collect will be in the Net amount that settles to your bank account.
Square and Paypal have similar interfaces when accessing their payment dashboard.
### How Does the Convenience Fee Appear in the Traveler Tax Invoice/Receipt?
- When the **Traveler** or you (the **Planner**), on their behalf, [clicks to send a tax invoice/receipt](https://support.youli.io/articles/360001229776-how-to-send-tax-invoice-or-a-manual-payment-receipt-to-your-travelers?hsLang=en), it will include the Convenience fee as part of the payments made.
- In the example below, Yasmin has paid two INSTALLMENTS, one via credit card (including the Convenience Fee). And one paid directly without a Fee.
### Having issues setting up ACH?
---
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