Double charging payment processing fees for Shopify payments (Stripe)

[Markn1]

Customer buys something for $100 from my online store using Shopify Payments (Stripe) as the payment gateway.
Shopify charges $3.20 to process the transaction (2.9% $2.90 + $0.30 = $3.20)
then pays out to me the remaining $96.80

A week later, I refund the entire order...

Shopify Payments (Stripe) returns the $100 to the customer's credit card

Assuming I have a zero balance in my Shopify Payments account at the time so we don't get into the weeds about timing and payout schedules here...

Shopify Payments would withdraw $100 from my business checking account to return it to the customer.

Is that correct?

If so... I'm paying $3.20 for the initial transaction AND I'm paying it again for the refund so my total fee for the 2 transactions is now $6.40.

Customer pays $100 - $3.20 for transaction 1 = $96.80 payout - $100 refund = (-$3.20) so that's $3.20 twice = ($6.40)

[Olivia]

Hi, @Markn1!

A very warm welcome to Shopify Community. 

Thanks for sharing your question with us, I'd be glad to provide further insight into your questions today. To dive right in, it is correct that Shopify does not refund credit card transaction fees on orders processed through our gateway as per Shopify Payments Terms of Service Section C5, D5 and D6.

It is important to understand why this is implemented, and it essentially comes down to the fact that Shopify incurs charges to process such transactions. Therefore, that same fee is deducted from your total payout, and not refunded if the order is refunded.

With that being said, unlike many other processors Shopify does not charge you an additional fee to process the refund. To take your example, this is how the breakdown looks:

• Order worth $100 is processed on your Shopify store
• Payout of $96.80 occurs on your account, minus the fee
• Same order is refunded, returning the full value of $100 to the customer
• A negative $100 payout occurs on your account (resulting in -$3.20)

The transaction fee is only charged one time, the difference being that it is not returned to you even if a refund occurs.

I hope that helps clear it up, but if I missed or misunderstood anything please let me know.

Warm regards,