Let’s say a donor decides to donate $100. When they get to the confirm screen, there’s a check box to leave a tip to cover the fees. They can leave a % tip of any amount. Credit card processing is 2.2% + 30 cents (ACH is only 0.8%) and platform fees are 2.8%. 

So, a 5% tip fully covers the maximum costs.  If the donor decides not to cover any of the fees, then you’ll receive $94.70 instead of the $100. 

To dig in further, the majority of donors who sign up for spare change choose at least one debit or credit card to round up with. So, while the card swipes are being tracked, our system attempts to utilize the ACH mechanism (0.8% fee) to actually move the $5 transfers. 80% of cases allow the system to use ACH mechanism (0.8% fee).

That leaves the minority 20% of cases (where ACH withdrawals are blocked) that our system requires the actually credit card be charged for the $5 lumps.

Long story short, the average effective rate for processing is closer is 2.3%, but it is covered by donors 75% of the time.