What does it cost to take a card payment?

• 2.9% of the payment, to Stripe.
• $0.30 per payment, to Stripe.
• $0.99 per payment, to Playbook Logix.

On a $100 registration those three come to $4.19. What that costs you depends on who pays it, and the two answers are different numbers rather than the same number moved around.

When you create or edit a program, Who pays the Credit Card processing fee? offers two answers.

• The Customer pays. The fee is added to the family's total at checkout, and you receive the full registration fee.
• The Organization pays. The family pays the advertised price and the fee comes out of your payout.

There is no universally right answer. Passing it on keeps your revenue per player predictable, which matters when the fee is set to cover known costs like uniforms and field hire. Absorbing it keeps the advertised price the price, which matters when families are comparing you with the league in the next town.

This is the detail worth understanding, because the naive version leaves you short.

If you simply added the fee to the price, the fee would then be charged on the larger amount, and you would end up a few cents under. Playbook Logix works backwards from what you should receive instead. A $60 sponsorship costs the payer $63.12, and exactly $60.00 lands with the organization.

Adding the fee the obvious way would have charged $63.03 and left you nine cents short on every payment. Small, and it would never have reconciled.

Registration payments are direct charges on your own Stripe account, which makes your organization the merchant of record. Practically, that means three things:

• Funds settle to your bank, not through Playbook Logix.
• Stripe's 2.9% and $0.30 come out of your side of the transaction.
• Your organization name is what a family sees on their card statement.

That last one is worth telling families, because an unfamiliar name on a statement is a common cause of a disputed charge.

This is deliberate rather than an oversight, and it is written into the code so nobody changes it by accident. If a family withdraws in week one and you refund everything, that dollar is the cost of having taken the payment at all.

Card processing is separate from what you pay Playbook Logix. The two get confused constantly, because both are money leaving your organization. See your Playbook Logix plan for the other one.

Card payments are optional. Cash, a check, Venmo, Cash App, Zelle and PayPal all carry no Playbook Logix fee, because the money never goes through Stripe. You record those yourself. See accepting cash, checks and Venmo.

The trade is your time. A card payment reconciles itself; a stack of checks is an evening. Most organizations end up offering both and letting families choose.