Online Payments: Credit Card Surcharge

[CartonConcepts]

I have looked through posts dating back to 2012 and beyond where people have been requesting the ability to have MYOB automatically calculate and (where applicable) add a surcharge for Credit Card payments.

I have the PayDirect device and need to re-issue an invoice to manually add an extra line for a surcharge to the invoice while the customer is with me.

Now that PayDirect Online has been released, a customer has the ability to pay an invoice with their credit card at their leisure, but I end up being charged for it without the customer even being aware. I have phoned customer service and was informed that there is currently no way of automatically adding the surcharge and the system doesn't do it. I am currenlty on the screen to setup PayDirect Online so have not tested it myself. The advice of customer service was to increase my fees to cover the surcharge. Not really fair on people who are not paying by card.

Personally, I would have thought this is something that should have been written into the software prior to releasing the Online component, or should be an option included in the online section that adds the surcharge to the final total prior to the customer paying.

"Credit Card Surcharge"

[Suja_P]

Hi everyone,

We appreciate all of your comments, voting and thoughts regarding the credit card surcharge suggestion. We are always working hard to help businesses succeed, and we want to announce a recent change to invoice payments which we hope you're excited about as much as we are!

We’ve just dropped the price for invoice payments to 1.8% + 25c + launched BPAY as a new payment option, offering your customers more ways to pay with credit card, debit card and now BPAY!

We acknowledge our recent updates are not a substitute for adding surcharging functionality, but we hope these improvements will continue to help your businesses succeed and get your invoices paid even faster.

We have completed our research into surcharging, which we’ve posted on our blog here where we’ve identified some key points such as:

• 8 in 10 consumers think paying extra fee’s is unfair

• 1 in 4 consumers will walk away from the purchase

• 74% of small businesses don’t pass on their merchant fee’s

So, even though our research shows that surcharging has an adverse effect on consumer experiences, we recognise how many people have voted on this idea and we are actively exploring how and when this could be developed, as it is a significant piece of work that impacts several development areas.

We understand this has been a lengthy process and we appreciate your patience.

[AlanT]

Hi Suja,

Thanks for the update.

Tim’s article is interesting, but seems to be based upon retail sales where cash is still common place rather than the B2B and other invoice type transactions where cash is long gone.

I’d like to see the demographics of the participants and the context of the survey because we are talking here about transactions where invoices are raised and cash is the exception rather than the rule.

Remember, if you ask the right questions you can prove anything with statistics.

The reality is that since the law changed a few years back allowing businesses to legally recover their costs of merchant fees, some businesses are adding these charges and they are accepted within their industries and others are not.

Even the NSW government has introduced a ‘Cost Recovery Policy’ and are on-charging merchant fees.

https://www.service.nsw.gov.au/merchant-fees

Yes, personally I think it is unfair to be quoted a price and then find there is an additional surcharge because of the payment method I choose. Where an alternative method is offered I usually use it.

And yes, I have walked away from some purchases because the supplier has not offered an alternative method of payment that does not involve an additional fee.

The difference here is that the customer is given a choice and if they choose to pay the additional fee for whatever their reason is, that is their prerogative. A business should also offer an alternative method to pay, such as a direct deposit that does not incur an additional fee and let the customer choose.

Each business owner knows their industry best and they should be the one who decides if and when to on-charge the fees. They too should have the freedom to choose.

If MYOB wish to provide software that is flexible enough to support as many industries as possible, they need to include this feature. Until they do, the software is stuck in the 1980’s when it was written into the merchant agreement that they would not charge different prices for each payment method.

Your customers are asking for this, just do it.

Alan

[Suzi_Byrom]

Well said @AlanT massive Kudos to you

[Katrina_Hamann]

What Alan said... Get it done!!!

[TamFowler]

MYOB your response has INFURIATED ME!!  

There is NO NEED to RESEARCH SURCHARGING!  Those consumers are NOT your customers!  Research this - YOUR CUSTOMERS want this feature!  Bottom line!

I don't need you to tell me and somewhat threaten that customers will walk away from the sales etc.  You don't know my business, my customers or obviously anything about your own customers, it seems.  For the record, my customers are contracted so can't 'walk away from the sale' and they WANT THE CREDIT CARD OPTION (and willing to pay a small surcharge for it), as not all want to pay online.

This is YET ANOTHER REASON why you've lost me!  My accountant has been pushing us to move to QuickBooks or another platform for some time now (which is also CHEAPER than MYOB) and I've had enough!  Poor service, poor product, overpriced and NO VISION to listen to your customers. 

[ccall48]

I agree, If you're upfront about CC fee's most people don't care.

Putting the prices up accross the board to just cover the costs of CC transactions is ridiculous, just add a surcharge to take your fee's out with the transaction. Otherwise the cost comes off my bottom line because I haven't got the time to work out the fee's applicable with what card and you never look a gift horse in the mouth when they're trying to pay before you leave and all they've got is a CC.

[Turtlewitnohome]

So you charge us 1.8% but dont let us easily recoup this?  Come on, give us the option, dont decide for us.

[lindso]

I don't know if this has also been suggested but it falls within creditcard surcharge and may also apply here...we do charge a credit card surcharge (and not had any backlash from customers) and every time I need to add a credit card surcharge I have to add it to the invoice (which has already been recorded) and then record the payment for the full payment amount - in previous versions of AccountRight I could simply record the payment and the credit card surcharge would be recorded as a finance charge against that particular invoice. If I attempt to do that now AccountRight creates a new invoice just for the surcharge component and it doesn't apply against the particular invoice for which the payment was recorded. This feature was working well and it was changed when AccountRight underwent it's major facelift - any change this feature can be reinstated to save ridiculous amounts of time going back and forth to add a credit card surcharge?

[Elitebal]

Even if MYOB doesn't agree, this should be an option as it is in Xero and other accounting programs.

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@CartonConcepts wrote:

I have looked through posts dating back to 2012 and beyond where people have been requesting the ability to have MYOB automatically calculate and (where applicable) add a surcharge for Credit Card payments.

I have the PayDirect device and need to re-issue an invoice to manually add an extra line for a surcharge to the invoice while the customer is with me.

Now that PayDirect Online has been released, a customer has the ability to pay an invoice with their credit card at their leisure, but I end up being charged for it without the customer even being aware. I have phoned customer service and was informed that there is currently no way of automatically adding the surcharge and the system doesn't do it. I am currenlty on the screen to setup PayDirect Online so have not tested it myself. The advice of customer service was to increase my fees to cover the surcharge. Not really fair on people who are not paying by card.

Personally, I would have thought this is something that should have been written into the software prior to releasing the Online component, or should be an option included in the online section that adds the surcharge to the final total prior to the customer paying.

"Credit Card Surcharge"

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[Mike_S]

I am currently using third party payment platform that integrates with MYOB, as its the only way I can pass on credit card surcharges to clients.  I also won’t be using PayDirect until surcharging is available.

As a business owner in the construction industry,  in my experience customers are happy to pay the surcharge for the convenience and rewards points on their credit card. 

However, with large invoice balances and very tight net profit margins in the construction industry, net profits can range from 10-15% for each job. So to absorb the 1.8% MYOB surcharge is not an option. That would equate to a 18% reduction in net profit.