Application Fee

Application Fee and Approval Fee

When comparing your options for a credit card processing merchant account, it is important to consider fees.

Most business owners are aware of transaction fees but two less common fees to be on the lookout for are application fees and approval fees.

Application Fee

On very rare occasions, payment processors may charge potential customers an application fee. This is a fee assessed to apply for an account, without the guarantee that the applicant will be approved.

It must be paid regardless of whether or not the account is ultimately opened.

This differs from an approval fee, that would be assessed after the customer is approved but before the account is activated.

Typically, this type of fee is only used for merchants who might be of a very high risk to the processor.

A high risk applicant may have a high average ticket value (deal in large purchases) or have the potential for a greater than average number of chargebacks.

The fee may be designed to offset additional administrative legwork required by the processor to determine the risk associated with the business.

Approval Fee

An approval fee is assessed if, and only if, the applicant is approved to open an account after submitting an application.

Similar to an application fee, an approval fee is very rare and is usually associated with accounts that would pose a high risk to the credit card processor.

If you have a choice between an application fee and an approval fee, an approval fee is more favorable as it guarantees you will only be responsible for paying it if your application is approved.

We advise to be very aware of any additional fees like this as they are not common and could needlessly cost you extra money.

When you work with Easy Pay Direct, you will never be charged an approval or application fee. This is just one more advantage of working with us!