Vagaro offers competitive credit card processing rates and a wide range of other benefits, including the ability to sell services, products, memberships, and gift certificates online. You can also capture credit cards, create cancellation and no-show policies, and require credit card payments online.
When you sign up for Credit Card Processing, you are eligible to receive a free credit card reader, including the Vagaro Credit Card Reader, after the application is approved. To get started, go to the Credit Card Processing page in Vagaro by selecting Settings > Add-Ons.
Vagaro offers merchant services to businesses in the United States and
Important
Transactions paid for with a Card on File are classified as Keyed-In Transactions, even if the appointment was checked out in-house.
Also, FANF and MasterCard Location fees for Small Merchants are absorbed by Vagaro.
For reporting on your business's credit card transactions and deposits, see the Credit Card Deposits Report.
For businesses with a processing volume of less than $4,000 per month.
No monthly fee
2.75 per swipe
3.5% +15¢ per keyed-in transaction
For businesses with a processing volume of more than $4,000 per month.
$10 monthly fee
2.2% + 19¢ per swipe
3.0% + 19¢ per keyed-in transaction and association fees
Large merchants are required to pay a monthly association fee. These fees include Card-Present/Not-Present FANF rates based and a MasterCard Location Fee. Small merchants do not have to pay these fees; they are absorbed by Vagaro. See FANF Monthly Costs to learn more.
The MasterCard Location Fee is a standard fee of $15 annually or $1.25 monthly.
Swiped transactions are processed in-house when you slide the card's magnetic stripe through a reader. Swiped transactions also include transactions using cards with EMV chips and EMV card readers where the card is dipped (inserted into the reader) or tapped (the card touches the reader). Transactions using Apple Pay and Google Pay are considered "swiped" transactions.
Keyed-in transactions are payments made online or through a card on file by either a business or a customer who had to manually enter credit/debit card information. Recurring payments for memberships and packages are also considered keyed-in transactions.
ACH Return ($20): Customers are required to keep banking information up to date. If the account information on file is wrong, through no fault of Vagaro Merchant Services (VMS), and cannot verify your bank account information based on your provided information, a $20 fee will be charged for any deposit returned due to inaccurate bank account information.
ACH Reject ($20): If your account is frozen, your financial institution may reject deposits. Each rejected deposit will automatically incur a $20 fee.
Chargeback ($20): Upon a consumer initiating a chargeback, the consumer's financial institution immediately and without notice impound the exact amount of funds at dispute from your account. We will impose a $20 fee, as well as provide details of the chargeback transaction and instructions/process on how to dispute it.
FANF stands for Fixed Acquirer Network Fee and is charged to large merchants only (Vagaro absorbs this fee for small merchants). If you have a monthly sales volume under $200, FANF will not apply. Businesses with a monthly volume of $200 – $1,250 will pay a FANF of 0.15% of the total volume instead of a fixed dollar amount.
Card-Present FANF Rates
If you take card-present (swiped) payments, your FANF cost depends on the number of locations you have and whether you're considered a "high volume" industry:
Number of Locations |
FANF per Location |
High Volume FANF per Location |
1-3 |
$2.00 |
$2.90 |
4-10 |
$2.90 |
$4.00 |
11-50 |
$4.00 |
$5.00 |
51-100 |
$6.00 |
$8.00 |
101-150 |
$8.00 |
$12.00 |
151-200 |
$10.00 |
$18.00 |
201-250 |
$14.00 |
$25.00 |
251-500 |
$24.00 |
$35.00 |
501-1,000 |
$32.00 |
$45.00 |
Card-Not-Present FANF Rates
If you accept card-not-present transactions (either online, where a customer enters their card details themselves, recurring payments, cards on file, or when you or your staff key in the card details instead of swiping), you'll pay card-not-present FANF rates, which are determined by your monthly volume. As with card-present rates, if you have a monthly sales volume under $200, the fee will not apply. If your monthly volume is $200–$1,249, you'll pay 0.15% of the total volume instead of a set dollar amount.
Monthly Volume |
Monthly Fee |
$1,250 - $3,999 |
$7.00 |
$4,000 - $7,999 |
$9.00 |
$8,000 - $39,999 |
$15.00 |
$40,000 - $199,999 |
$45.00 |
$200,000 - $799,999 |
$160.00 |
$800,000 - $1,999,999 |
$450.00 |
$2,000,000 - $3,999,999 |
$1,000.00 |
$4,000,000 - $7,999,999 |
$2,000.00 |
$8,000,000 - $19,999,999 |
$4,000.00 |
$20,000,000 - $39,999,999 |
$8,000.00 |
What if my business has both card-present and card-not-present transactions?
If some of your transactions are card-present and some are card-not-present on the same merchant account, the card-present fees will still apply by location. The card-not-present fees will still apply by volume, but only the card-not-present transactions will be used to determine that volume.
Example
Say you have a single-location business with 90% card-present transactions and 10% card-not-present transactions.
If your total sales volume is $100,000 in one month, you will be charged the card-not-present FANF rate for $10,000 of volume for that month (10% of $100,000.) You could expect to pay $15 in card-not-present FANF costs.
Comments
33 comments
Hi Halla. You get charged the swiped fee when you swipe the credit card with the reader or use the chip reader. A typed fee is what you receive when you manually enter the credit card number or use a credit card on file. It's deemed a higher risk fee, which is why the cost is slightly higher. Online transactions are also bucketed in the typed fee transactions. I hope this provides more clarification.
Is there a way that we can have our clients pay the credit card transaction fee, included in their total? My previous booking app allowed me to do this but I'm trying to figure out if Vagaro offers this option.
Hi Destiny. We don't offer this option, but I'll send this feedback to our management team.
Would I have to Include credit card transaction fee in each one of my services and items ? This is a big issue right now since switching to vagaro.
Trying to reconcile the credit card charges. Where do we go to get a statement of charges including the fees?
Have you looked at the Deposit Report? (Reports menu > Sales section > Deposits)
It breaks out all fees on a deposit by deposit basis. Example:
Also how do we see a report and all the processing fees from you guys do you have a report for that
Hi Brittany:
For your first question about swiping/saving card on file, I've submitted a support ticket and you should hear from someone on our support team.
For the 2nd question, see the response just above your questions and take a look at the Deposit Report. You'll find all fees broken out by deposit in that report.
How do I change from being a large merchant to a small merchant?
Hi Codie: To change your rate, contact support or Vagaro Merchant Services. I've put in a ticket for you to start the process and you should hear from support soon.
How does it work for Canadian businesses that use Vagaro but don’t have merchant services available? Can they use something else to process payments?
Hi Lindsay... Vagaro merchant services are coming to our customers in Canada at the end of June or early July. See this web page for more info: https://sales.vagaro.com/currency#ca
Do these fees also apply to debit cards?
Stephanie:
If you're in the US, yes, debit cards incur the same fees like credit card purchases.
What if one month I have less than $4,000 in sales and the next month I have more than $4,000 in sales? Does the system auto change the card processing rate automatically or do I have to contact vagaro? What if income fluctuates month to month above or below $4,000?
I created a support ticket for your question, Tobias.
Who do we contact if a payment went through with reader and email to client sent, but it is not showing in my bank account on file? Also, even though I have good internet there are times where the reader will not connect with my phone. How do I also get it to work on my laptop.
For payment processing issues, please contact Vagaro support.
You can connect the EMV reader to a desktop or laptop via USB (cable that comes with the reader). See this article:
https://support.vagaro.com/hc/en-us/articles/360018745934-Using-the-EMV-Reader-with-a-Mac-or-Windows-Computer
Is there an update to the question why larger accounts are being penalized in fees even though the rate is lower?
Also when will an option to charge the clients the fees be available? right now many merchants offer this...making it very enticing to switch (even if its a headache to move over)
Charging more on the service doesn't off set the cost. So again, can we catch up to the industry and be given a feature that allows the consumer to pay the processing fee
I'm not sure what you are referring to when you mention being penalized with a lower rate, if you are on a large merchant account, you pay less in fees if you are processing over $4,000 a month. I verified this on your account and you saved over $27.54 in the last 30 days from what you would have paid on a small merchant account.
Regarding the option for clients to pay fees, that's called a surcharge and it's not something we do for multiple reasons. 1) It's not legal in all states, 2) It does not apply to all transactions, for example a debit card or prepaid debit card cannot be charged a surcharge, if you do you are in violation with the card brands, Visa, MasterCard, etc, 3) You must have signage in the store and online as well as on the receipt that you have a surcharge for credit card transactions and display the fee, 4) You must apply to do this with each of the card brands, 5) If someone out of state or outside of the USA purchases from your online store and their state prohibits these fees, you are in violation of these rules, 6) You would not be able to take any encrypted transactions (i.e. EMV, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Tap to Pay) transactions since these cannot be blocked, due to encryption, from the surcharge if they are a debit or pre-paid debit card, therefore limiting you to swiped transactions (which you automatically lose on chargebacks since EMV was released) or you have to type in transactions at the higher rate.
These are the main reasons we do not have this option or plan on adding it, besides that fact the most customers won't agree to these fees and will go elsewhere.
I just applied a filter to see what transactions I have "keyed" or "typed" in for the month and I am surprised to see that clients who have credit capture and have a credit card on file are considered "keyed or "typed." So I am essentially paying the higher percentage instead of the 2.75% or 2.5%+10 cents I am paying the 3.5%+15 cents. Is this correct? I hope this is not correct. If so I was not explained this when the agent spoke about the convenience of a business having credit capture. I feel this is misleading and am not happy with this at all if this is the correct assumption. If you would clarify. 1. If a client has a credit card in file and a business uses that credit card (from credit capture or deposit feature) is the business being charged the higher percentage rate + 15 cents, is it considered a "keyed in" transaction? 2
Is the shopping cart feature separate from the credit card processing feature or are they one in the same meaning is it $10/month or $20/month? 3. So what is vagaro charging per client if their card is on file and with paying the shopping cart feature and credit processing feature?
2 more questions:
1. Does the vagaro processing fee include the credit cards processing fees or are they separate percentages?
2. Would someone at vagaro be able to breakdown how my total revenue vs my take home difference is calculated, i.e. different percentages: above-below $4000, keyed in, swiped, FANF, etc. and my monthly bill? For example for separately February 1st-28th and March 1st-31st 2022? I will be better able to understand this then.
Thank you for the help.
Lisette:
If you still need help understanding your Deposits report, please call support.
I am having trouble with the reader because the client swipes but the card information is not saved on file which means even ida I swipe the first time and want to savecvard on file, I have to type it in. If I swipe or tap the card once, the system should save on file or at least prompt to do so and then leave this on file as a tapped or swiped transaction Stripe doe just this to avoid the higher fees. Not sure why we cannot to the same. Can you offer rat option of using Stripe or Square? Thank you.
Hi Teba,
Thanks for letting us know that you are having issues with your card reader. I assigned you a ticket, and a customer representative will contact you soon. Hopefully, they can find a solution for you.
Thanks,
Jamie
Does Vagaro plan on offering the merchant a way in which we can charge the clients the transaction fees?
Christina: there are no plans to do this, as far as I know.
Donna
Vagaro is very misleading with this card on file transaction fee. I feel as if I’m being cheated out of my money for asking my clients to pay a deposit fee and Vagaro take a high percentage if it. I have been unhappy with Vagaro for a while.
Hi Pelaura,
The 3.5% + 15 c processing fee is the standard for keyed-in transactions for credit card processors. Could you please go into more detail on what is misleading?
Thanks,
Jamie
Am I charged a % for monthly membership costs? Also am I charged if a customer purchases a class online?
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