We are excited to announce a significant change in how Lightspeed Payments calculates fees. Moving forward, your fees will be calculated based only on the order value, ensuring that you no longer pay a fee on any surcharges. This update is designed to make our payment processing more transparent and beneficial for you.
What Is Changing:
Previously, when a customer made a purchase, fees were charged based on the total transaction value, including any surcharge you applied using Lightspeed Payments. This was leading to an annoying daily reconciliation task. With the new fee calculation, only the original order value will be used to determine the fee, eliminating additional fees on surcharges. If you opt to pass on your transaction fees in full, you can operate Lightspeed Payments at zero cost (excluding any chargebacks or other non-transaction related fees).
To illustrate the change, here’s a comparison:
| Old Calculation (pre October 1) |
New Calculation (October 1 forward) |
|
| Order Value | $100.00 | $100.00 |
| Surcharge Amount (1.65%) | $1.65 | $1.65 |
| Total Authorised Amount | $101.65 | $101.65 |
| Transaction Fee | $1.68 | $1.65 |
| Remaining Fees after Surcharge | $0.03 | $0.00 |
| Settled Amount | $99.97 | $100 |
Additionally, we’re updating the way that fees on refunds are handled to bring them in line with industry standards. Now, regardless of if an amount is refunded to a customer, transaction fees will apply only to the original transaction. Refund transactions will not be charged a transaction fee.
What Will Remain the Same:
While we are updating the fee calculation, other aspects of payment processing will remain unchanged. You may still experience times where your payout does not exactly match the revenue figure posted to your accounting platform. This can stem from chargebacks, standalone transactions or other adjustments.
If you choose not to surcharge or choose not to surcharge the entire cost, then you will still see fees deducted from your payouts. For example, a merchant that is only surcharging 1% of their 1.65% fee would experience this payout:
| Old Calculation | New Calculation | |
| Order Value | $100.00 | $100.00 |
| Surcharge Amount (1.65%) | $1.65 | $1.65 |
| Total Authorised Amount | $101.00 | $101.00 |
| Transaction Fee | $1.68 | $1.65 |
| Remaining Fees after Surcharge | $0.68 | $0.65 |
| Settled Amount | $99.32 | $99.35 |
What you need to do:
It’s crucial to review your surcharging practices to ensure compliance with Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) requirements. You are wholly responsible for verifying that your surcharges do not exceed the cost of accepting payments. If you have adjusted your surcharges to reduce the residual fee, you should consider updating them to ensure you are compliant with the RBA requirements. Once you have done this, update your terminals to ensure that you are using the most recent configuration.
We believe this change will improve your experience with Lightspeed Payments and support your business growth. For any questions or further assistance, please contact our support team. Thank you for choosing Lightspeed.