Passing on the fee (Surcharge)

This feature enables the pass on of part of the transaction fee for unregulated payment cards to the payer (buyer), thereby reducing the fee paid by the merchant (seller).

This results in a significant reduction in fees for merchants where payers are more likely to use non-EU-issued cards. Limiting the cost of payment cards provides a predictable margin, allowing merchants to better price their goods sold.

Surcharge from the payer's perspective

The payment gateway is designed to automatically identify the payment card type during data entry.

In cases where the card type is identified as unregulated, the payer is presented with the surcharge information, and the payment amount is automatically increased by the specified surcharge amount. The payer can then decide whether to proceed with the payment and pay the surcharged amount or opt for an alternative payment method, such as a QR payment or a consumer payment card issued within the EU, which are not subject to the surcharge.

Surcharge from the merchant's perspective

The merchant will always be paid the same amount as in the case of a payment by a regulated card, regardless of which type of payment card the payer actually pays with. As a result, the price paid by the merchant for payment cards will always be equal to the "Debit and credit consumer issued in the EU" item of the merchant's current price list.

The merchant may determine for which payments the fees will be passed on.

Example

A customer purchases goods valued at CZK 1,000, opting to settle with a business card issued within the European Union. The payment gateway imposes a surcharge of CZK 20.5. Consequently, the customer's total expenditure amounts to CZK 1,020.5. The merchant's price list includes a fee for regulated cards, set at 0.62% + CZK 0.7. For a given transaction, the merchant receives the same amount as when using a regulated card, i.e. CZK 1,000 less the fee of CZK 0.62 + CZK 0.7, which equals CZK 993.1.

The merchant's billing to the payer

As shown above, the customer purchased goods from the merchant for CZK 1,000, with a surcharge of CZK 20.5 applied to their business card. The total payment amount is thus CZK 1,020.5. The merchant will include a CZK 20.5 surcharge on the invoice for the use of an unregulated payment card, and the total amount will be CZK 1,020.5. The merchant will add the fee for the unregulated card payment to the invoice as a separate item, such as "Fee/surcharge for payment by unregulated card". Please note that this item is exempt from VAT as it falls under the category of a financial service.

Example of the breakdown of items on an invoice

Accounting perspective on the side of the merchant

From an accounting perspective, the total amount paid by the payer is considered the merchant's income. In the above example, this amounts to CZK 1,020.5. The merchant's expense is comprised of two components: the fee for the payment by regulated card and the surcharge paid by the payer. In the above example, the merchant's expense is CZK 6.2 for the former and CZK 0.7 for the latter, amounting to a total of CZK 27.4. The total accounting income in this example is CZK 1,020.5, the expense is CZK 27.4, and the income net of fees is CZK 993.1.

How the merchant determines the amount of the surcharge

The merchant receives transparent information about the applied surcharge in push notifications and payment status. When a push payment status is sent, the merchant will receive appliedFee (the amount of the surcharge that increased the payment), appliedFeeType (the type of card used) and 'price' (the total amount paid), giving the merchant complete information about the surcharge. More information can be found in the API documentation.

Customer Portal View

In the Client Portal, the merchant will find a breakdown of the amount paid including the surcharge.

• Paid amount: the amount plus surcharge paid by the payer

• Base amount: the amount for which the merchant sells the goods

• Surcharge: the calculated surcharge for the payment with a non-regulated card, paid by the payer

• Amount after deduction of fee: the amount that will be paid to the merchant

• Total fee: the total sum of the merchant's fee and the merchant's surcharge

Additional items are calculated on the basis of the incoming call, the sum of which always equals the total fee.

Payment setup via the payment link

You can also use the Payment link tab in the Client Portal to set up a payment.

Refundace platby

The merchant may refund any amount to the payer, up to the full amount including the surcharge.

Service activation

We only make this feature available to customers with the Profi and Custom pricing plans (individual price quote).

This service is optional and must be requested at the time the contract is signed. Existing customers can then contact our customer support team for assistance.

This service is not supported by all e-commerce solutions. We recommend that you check compatibility with the developer of the module/plugin you are using for your shop connection.

Implementation in e-shop

For implementation information, please refer to the API documentation.

• REST: Merchant API

• HTTP POST: Merchant API

Not all e-commerce solutions support this service. We recommend that you check compatibility with the developer of the module/plugin you are using for your shop connection.

Shoptet

If you run your e-shop on Shoptet administration, please refer to these instructions.

Apple Pay and Google Pay

It is not possible to apply a surcharge for Apple Pay and Google Pay, so these payment methods are deactivated by default. If you still wish to enable Apple Pay and Google Pay, you can do so via the technical settings. In the case of Apple Pay and Google Pay, the merchant will always be charged according to the card type used and the applicable price list. The merchant can enable/disable these payment methods using the enableApplePayGooglePay: true/false parameter.

Parameters sent via API

Payment process

1. The merchant creates a payment with the parameter chargeUnregulatedCardFees: true/false and the Comgate payment gateway takes care of partial compensation for the costs associated with payments via unregulated cards.

2. The merchant can enable/disable Apple Pay and Google Pay payments with the parameter enableApplePayGooglePay: true/false.

   • If the chargeUnregulatedCardFees: true parameter is used, the default value of enableApplePayGooglePay: false.

3. When paying at a payment gateway, the system detects the card type based on the first ten digits of the card entered. Thus, the payer learns the fee information immediately after entering the first ten card numbers and pays the total amount including the surcharge directly. After clicking Pay, the transaction of the amount plus the surcharge is executed.

4. The system processes the payment and updates the transaction information.

5. After payment, it forwards the information to the merchant and sends the actual "price" value that was paid by the payer, including information about the type and amount of the surcharge applied.