What Is Surcharging and How Does It Work?

What is surcharging?

A surcharge is an additional fee added to a credit card transaction to help cover the cost of payment processing. In Sertifi, properties can enable surcharging so that the credit card processing fee is passed on to the guest at the time of payment, rather than absorbed by the property.

A surcharge is always calculated as a percentage of the total transaction amount.

What the guest sees

When a guest submits a payment through a surcharge-enabled portal, they will see the surcharge amount clearly displayed before they confirm payment. The total amount charged includes the base payment plus the surcharge.

Important rules

Surcharging applies to credit cards only. Sertifi automatically detects whether a card is a credit or debit card — if a debit card is used, the surcharge is not applied even if surcharging is enabled for the portal.
Surcharging cannot be applied to ACH payments.
The surcharge amount cannot exceed your processing fee. Surcharging is intended to recover processing costs, not generate additional revenue.
Surcharging is only available on Next Gen portals using Sertifi Pay (Stripe).

When not to surcharge

Properties typically do not apply surcharges to transactions for tax-exempt organizations such as nonprofits or government agencies. US federal government entities may not be surcharged under Sertifi's terms.

Each property has discretion over when to apply or waive a surcharge — for example, a property may choose not to surcharge high-volume corporate accounts. Surcharging can be toggled on or off per individual payment request.