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Understanding online payment methods and fees at Bonsai
Understanding online payment methods and fees at Bonsai

An overview of the processing fees when getting an invoice paid using Bonsai Payments, Stripe, or Paypal.

Updated over a week ago

When you're getting paid online through Bonsai, it's important to understand the different payment methods we support and the fees associated with them. We offer a variety of online and offline payment options to ensure you receive your payments efficiently.

πŸ‘‰ Note that Bonsai makes it easy to pass the payment processing fees onto your client so you receive exactly the amount you invoiced.

Bonsai Payments

Bonsai Payments is available for users in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. This method is deeply integrated with Bonsai, offering faster payouts and a smoother client experience. It allows payments via credit card, debit card, and bank transfer (ACH).

Fees Explained

  • Credit and Debit Cards (Visa, Mastercard, Maestro, Discover, JCB, Diners Club, UnionPay): 2.9% + $0.30.

  • American Express: 3.25% + $0.30.

  • Bank Transfer (ACH): 1% ($1 minimum).

Why These Fees? These fees are primarily due to the costs charged by payment networks like Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. Bonsai passes these costs through to ensure seamless and secure transactions.
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πŸ‘‰ Note: for US accounts, if your account is eligible, "Instant Payouts" can be enabled with an additional 1.5% fee on the payout amount.

Pro tip: Activate Bonsai business banking

You can choose to activate Bonsai's business banking solution within Banking. It is an easy-to-use account to help you manage your business funds, spending, and savings goals. Get paid directly to your business banking balance and spend your funds with your virtual and physical cards. Plus, it supports Instant Payouts!

Stripe Payments

Stripe Payments can be used in any country where Stripe is supported and can be directly integrated with your existing Stripe account.

Note: For US users, Bonsai Payments is activated by default as a payment option, so you'll first need to deactivate it (Payments -> More actions -> Deactivate Account) in order to be able to set up Stripe Payments.

Fees explained

  • Credit and Debit Cards: 2.9% + $0.30.

  • American Express: 2.9% + $0.30.

  • Bank Transfer (ACH): 1.0% ($1 minimum).

Why These Fees? These fees are primarily due to the costs charged by payment networks like Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. Bonsai passes these costs through to ensure seamless and secure transactions.
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Platform Fee: An additional 1% platform fee applies to Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, Discover, JCB, Diners Club, UnionPay transactions and 1.35% for American Express. This fee supports the integration and services provided by Bonsai.

PayPal

PayPal's fees typically are 2.9% + $0.30, though they may vary by country.

Platform Fee: All PayPal payments incur an additional 1% platform fee in countries supported by Bonsai Payments.

Foreign Exchange (FX) fee

The Foreign Exchange (FX) fee is a fee that is added to your Bonsai Payments or Stripe Payments invoices when you get paid internationally using one of our online payment methods. This fee is 2.5% of your invoice amount.

You can learn more about the FX fee and when is it effective, in detail here.

'Other' payment methods outside Bonsai

Other payment methods outside of Bonsai, such as Wire Transfer and Mailed Check, are not integrated into Bonsai's platform so any invoice template you send will not automatically be marked as paid upon completion.

If you decide to use these options, Bonsai will simply display the information to your client and you will need to mark your invoice as paid.

In order to use these offline payment options, you need to enable the below setting on the Invoice Settings page here: https://app.hellobonsai.com/settings/payments

Upon enabling this option, you can name it as Bank Account, etc to input your instructions to the client to do a wire. Then, these instructions do show up to your client at the time of paying your invoice, under the available payment methods.

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